Digitale Transformation auf Sparflamme: Weniger 4.0-Investitionen in der Pandemie

Contrary to public opinion, the digital transformation in Germany did not accelerate during the Covid-19 pandemic. This is shown by the results of the new firm survey “Working World 4.0” conducted by the Institute for Employment Research (IAB), the Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW), the Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER), and the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). Although firms increasingly introduced technologies that enabled employees to work from home, these investments in communication and collaboration technologies came at the expense of investments in other advanced digital technologies (4.0 technologies). Firms therefore reacted to the pandemic by shifting investments, but not by increasing them. Larger investment projects in particular were postponed or abandoned altogether. Overall, the pandemic slowed down the introduction of these technologies. This paid off for firms in the short term: Investments in technologies to support working from home helped to mitigate the negative employment effects of the pandemic. In the longer term, however, the postponement of 4.0 investments may have a negative impact on productivity and may therefore contribute to the current weak productivity growth in Germany.