Advanced Technologies Adoption and Use by U.S. Firms: Evidence from the Annual Business Survey
December 2020
Working Paper Number:
CES-20-40
Abstract
We introduce a new survey module intended to complement and expand research on the causes and consequences of advanced technology adoption. The 2018 Annual Business Survey (ABS), conducted by the Census Bureau in partnership with the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES), provides comprehensive and timely information on the diffusion among U.S. firms of advanced technologies including artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, robotics, and the digitization of business information. The 2018 ABS is a large, nationally representative sample of over 850,000 firms covering all private, nonfarm sectors of the economy. We describe the motivation for and development of the technology module in the ABS, as well as provide a first look at technology adoption and use patterns across firms and sectors. We find that digitization is quite widespread, as is some use of cloud computing. In contrast, advanced technology adoption is rare and generally skewed towards larger and older firms. Adoption patterns are consistent with a hierarchy of increasing technological sophistication, in which most firms that adopt AI or other advanced business technologies also use the other, more widely diffused technologies. Finally, while few firms are at the technology frontier, they tend to be large so technology exposure of the average worker is significantly higher. This new data will be available to qualified researchers on approved projects in the Federal Statistical Research Data Center network.
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:
industrial,
enterprise,
survey,
technological,
technology,
tech,
innovation,
technology adoption,
innovate,
warehousing,
gdp,
computer
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including "organizations." By filtering for frequent words and phrases labeled as "organizations", papers are
identified to contain references to specific institutions, datasets, and other organizations.
:
Bureau of Labor Statistics,
National Science Foundation,
Annual Survey of Manufactures,
Service Annual Survey,
National Establishment Time Series,
Survey of Manufacturing Technology,
Statistics Canada,
Current Population Survey,
Longitudinal Business Database,
COMPUSTAT,
Retail Trade,
Census of Manufacturing Firms,
North American Industry Classification System,
American Community Survey,
Patent and Trademark Office,
Computer Network Use Supplement,
Information and Communication Technology Survey,
European Commission,
National Academy of Sciences,
Census Bureau Disclosure Review Board,
Survey of Business Owners,
Longitudinal Firm Trade Transactions Database,
Disclosure Review Board,
Business Dynamics Statistics,
Linear Probability Model,
Business R&D and Innovation Survey,
Management and Organizational Practices Survey,
Federal Statistical Research Data Center,
Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs,
Pew Research Center,
National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics,
Annual Business Survey
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