Essays on Technological Change and Firm Dynamics
Essays; Technological; Change; Firm; Dynamics;
his thesis investigates the impact of communication technology diffusion on Brazil’s productive structure, with a dual focus on workers and firms. Across its chapters, the study combines administrative microdata with exogenous measures of technology access, derived from the Irregular Terrain Model (ITM) and mobile network expansion, to estimate causal effects.
Chapter 1 examines the rollout of second-generation (2G) mobile telephony as an exogenous connectivity shock, identifying positive impacts on formal sector wages, with heterogeneous effects by education level, industry, and geographic location.
Chapter 2 analyzes the arrival of high-speed mobile internet (3G/4G) as a skill-biased technological shock, assessing whether enhanced connectivity increases returns to cognitive and non-routine occupations.
Chapter 3 documents a persistent rise in e-commerce activity in Brazil following the COVID-19 pandemic and proposes an empirical strategy to estimate the role of digital infrastructure in firms’ adaptive capacity.
Keywords: Technology diffusion; Mobile internet; Labor market; Firms; Inequality; Difference-in-differences; Brazil.