TY - JOUR AU - Bartel, Ann AU - Ichniowski, Casey AU - Shaw, Kathryn AU - Correa, Ricardo TI - International Differences in the Adoption and Impact of New Information Technologies and New HR Practices: The Valve-Making Industry in the U.S. and U.K. JF - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series VL - No. 13651 PY - 2007 Y2 - November 2007 DO - 10.3386/w13651 UR - http://www.nber.org/papers/w13651 L1 - http://www.nber.org/papers/w13651.pdf N1 - Author contact info: Ann P. Bartel Graduate School of Business Columbia University 3022 Broadway, 623 Uris Hall New York, NY 10027 Tel: 212/854-4419 Fax: (212) 316-9219 E-Mail: apb2@columbia.edu Casey Ichniowski E-Mail: N/A user is deceased Kathryn L. Shaw Graduate School of Business Stanford University Stanford, CA 94305-5015 Tel: 650/725-4168 Fax: 650/725-0468 E-Mail: kathryns@stanford.edu Ricardo Correa Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System Division of International Finance Washington DC 20551 E-Mail: ricardo.correa@frb.gov M1 - published as Ann Bartel, Casey Ichniowski, Kathryn L. Shaw, Ricardo Correa. "International Differences in the Adoption and Impact of New Information Technologies and New HR Practices: The Valve-Making Industry in the United States and United Kingdom," in Richard B. Freeman and Kathryn L. Shaw, editors, "International Differences in the Business Practices and Productivity of Firms" University of Chicago Press (2009) AB - This paper compares the impact of new IT-enhanced technology on the efficiency of production in the U.S. and the U.K. for one manufacturing industry, valve manufacturing. There is a long-standing question of whether technological change and organizational changes have the same rates of adoption and impact internationally. We have assembled a unique dataset on plants in one narrowly defined industry -- valve manufacturing -- in both the U.S. and U.K to consider whether plants outside of the U.S. gain as much from IT as U.S. plants. We find that, despite differences in the current and historical patterns of institutions in the U.S. and U.K., both countries exhibit comparable patterns of gains to IT at the plant level. The impact of new IT-enhanced technology on the efficiency of production is virtually identical in the two countries. In addition, as a result of the adoption of the new technology, plants in both countries have shifted production to customized products. Finally, we find that, in both countries, the adoption of the new IT-enhanced technology coincides with increases in the skill requirements of machine operators, notably technical and problem-solving skills, and with the adoption of new human resource practices to support these skills. ER -