Somkiat Tangkitvanich, Thailand Development Research Institute: The paper measures total factor productivity (TFP) of Japanese manufacturing and service firms, most of which were small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), before and after the year 2000. The year was chosen as it was the timing around the implementation of the Basic Law for the Formation of an Advanced Information and Communication Network Society (2000), the launch of the e-Japan initiative (2001) and the rapid rise in information and communications technology (ICT) adoption among Japanese households and SMEs. By dividing the time around the year, the paper aims to measure the impacts of “ICT revolution” on productivity of Japanese firms.
The paper finds that TFP rose across the studied sectors, although there was only slight improvement in some, such as finance and insurance, and leasing. It also found that ICT product manufacturing firms achieved much more productivity growth than those in the ICT...