Advanced digital technologies in unionized firms

We study the causal effect of workplace unions on the adoption of advanced digital technologies in Italy. Using an IV approach that eliminates simultaneity bias and builds upon a lagged internal instrument combined with a measure of lagged political participation, we find that union presence encourages the probability of advanced digitalization by around 15 percentage points per year, and the number of different technologies adopted by 0.4, casting doubts on policies aiming at a weaker role for unions. Results survive when we drop cybersecurity and prove robust when the internal instrument is combined with propensity score matching or paired with an alternative measure of political capital.

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