Mr Vaarun Vijairaghavan (https://profiles.ucalgary.ca/vaarun-vijairaghavan) co-author of Prof Dr Steffen Zimmermann (IBA) presents his current research papers as part of his research visit to the University of Ulm.

Lecture title: "Energy Productivity Implications of IT Investments"

You are cordially invited to the lecture!

Abstract:

We evaluate the effect of IT on energy productivity by building a structural econometric specification using a varying coefficient model based on the Cobb-Douglas production function. We use U.S. manufacturing industry data collected from the Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Bureau of Labor Studies, and find that IT increases energy productivity: an increase in IT is associated with an increase in the output elasticity of energy due to IT augmentation. Further, given the large completed and planned investments in the Smart Grid, we posit that IT has a larger impact on the output elasticity and hence the marginal product of electric energy. We document that an increase in IT capital increases the output elasticity of electric energy more than of non-electric energy. We perform three additional analyses to better understand the differences between the effect of IT on electric and non-electric energy, documenting that IT increases electric energy efficiency, reduces the cost share of electric energy, and reduces the electric energy consumed to produce a certain level of output.