Digital economy in the UK: regional productivity effects of early adoption

Whilst the importance of internet-related technologies and digitization practices to economic performance is well documented, little is known about the long-term effects of the early adoption of such technologies. We use novel, geolocated data about the volume of online content from the Internet Archive to approximate the active engagement with digital economic activities. Using panel-data methods, we find significant positive and long-lasting effects of online content creation in 2000 on subsequent regional productivity levels up to 16 years later. Our findings highlight the sizeable effects of the digital economy that policy-makers should consider when developing future rollout strategies.