AI Unbound: Digital Infrastructure, AI Adoption, and Firm Performance

06.10.2026 14:15 – 15:30

Geneva Trade and Development Workshop (GTDW)

(jointly with: Nuriye Melisa Bilgin)


Abstract:

We study how digital infrastructure shapes AI diffusion and firm outcomes. Using administrative and survey data on Turkish firms and plausibly exogenous broadband variation from the staged expansion of the BOTAŞ-linked fiber network, we show that broadband expansion increases AI adoption, especially among SMEs and for cloud-dependent technologies. Predetermined organizational readiness conditions this response. Infrastructure-induced adopters subsequently expand ICT employment, strengthen managerial structures, and increase professional and managerial employment. Labor productivity and export intensity also rise. The results identify digital infrastructure and organizational capability as complementary inputs into AI adoption and its economic gains.


Biographical note: Please see
https://www.unibocconi.it/en/faculty/gianmarco-ottaviano

Lieu

Bâtiment: IHEID

The Graduate Institute, Geneva (IHEID)
Petal 1, Room S5
Chem. Eugène-Rigot 2, 1202 Genève Switzerland

entrée libre