Firm digitalisation and mobility – do Covid-19-related changes persist?

Axenbeck, Janna ; Bertschek, Irene ; Breithaupt, Patrick ; Erdsiek, Daniel

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URN:	urn:nbn:de:bsz:180-madoc-648065
Dokumenttyp:	Arbeitspapier
Erscheinungsjahr:	2023
Titel einer Zeitschrift oder einer Reihe:	ZEW Discussion Papers
Band/Volume:	23-011
Ort der Veröffentlichung:	Mannheim
Sprache der Veröffentlichung:	Englisch
Einrichtung:	Sonstige Einrichtungen > ZEW - Leibniz-Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung
MADOC-Schriftenreihe:	Veröffentlichungen des ZEW (Leibniz-Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung) > ZEW Discussion Papers
Fachgebiet:	330 Wirtschaft
Fachklassifikation:	JEL: H12 , I12 , L96 , O18,
Freie Schlagwörter (Englisch):	Covid-19 , digitalisation , mobility reductions , environmental improvements
Abstract:	The Covid-19 pandemic has sparked hope that firm digitalisation will result in long-lasting reductions in mobility and related carbon emissions via the use of working from home and online services. In this study, we quantify the extent to which firm digitalisation can be associated with changes in mobility during the Covid-19 crisis in Germany, both when strong restrictions were in place and after the restrictions were lifted. To this end, we employ a novel text-mining approach to measure digitalisation based on firm websites. We aggregate our firm digitalisation indicator at the district level and link it to changes in mobility between January 2020 and December 2022. Our results indicate that districts with a higher level of firm digitalisation experienced a stronger reduction in mobility during the first two years of the pandemic. However, mobility almost came back to pre-crisis levels after most restrictions were lifted, suggesting that environmental improvements are not long-lasting.