Techies and Firm‐Level Productivity

ABSTRACT We study the impact of techies—engineers and other technically trained workers—on firm‐level productivity. We first report new facts on techies in the firm using French administrative data. Techies are STEM‐skill intensive and associated with innovation, technology adoption, management, and diffusion within firms. Using structural econometric methods, we estimate the effect of techies on firm‐level Hicks‐neutral productivity in manufacturing and nonmanufacturing. We find that techies raise productivity, and that this effect goes beyond R&D workers, extending to ICT and other techies. In nonmanufacturing firms, the impact operates mostly through ICT and other techies, not R&D workers.