Additional Background Reading and Goals

>Dr. Poon provided me with another reading in preparation for our upcoming meeting. It is:

• Hitt, L. , 'The Role of Information Technology in Modern Production: Complement or Substitute to Other Inputs?', 2005.

>Further, after much discussion with my fellow peers I have decided to use the LaTeX typesetting system to write my thesis. Over the next few days I plan to configure LaTeX on my home PC and by my next meeting become familiar with common features of LaTeX source. I have chosen LaTeX as I feel it will allow me to focus directly on the content of my work and not waste valuable time on formatting.

Hence in addition to the goals I wish to achieve by my next meeting, the following to goals are also added:

• Become Familiar with LaTeX source
• Read the additional paper.
  

Update on Progress

I have had several meetings with my thesis supervisor Dr. Simon Poon to discuss my topic and the way going forward. It has been decided that my empirical analysis will be conducted using Eviews. Whilst I have had experience with Eviews in previous econometric courses, I will further explore the capabilities of this analytical tool and review the features that I am already familiar with.

My background in econometrics will be extremely useful as the skills that I have learned in ECMT 3110 Econometric Models and Methods will be extensively used in this thesis. Recently we have completed topics on panel data and instrumental variables, both of which will be useful in conducting the analysis and model estimation. Whilst I have completed introductory economics courses, my meetings with Dr. Poon highlighted the need for me to review and heighten my knowledge and understanding of economic theory regarding productivity.

Dr. Poon has provided me with two background readings from the Sloan School of Management Massachusetts Institute of Technology. They are:

1. Brynjolfsson, E. & Hitt, L., 'Is information systems spending productive? New evidence and new results', Sloan School of Management Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1993.
2. Brynjolfsson, E. & Yang, S., 'Information Technology and Productivity: A Review of the Literature', Sloan School of Management Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1996.

These papers will provide a solid understanding of the previous empirical studies carried out and potentially guide me into the direction of formulating a hypothesis for my thesis.

My next scheduled meeting will be on Friday June 29 where I will officially commence work on my thesis. Since I will be devoting the next few weeks to my exams I hope to accomplish the following by my next meeting:

• Gain a definite understanding of previous studies and their findings on information technology and productivity
• Obtain and review further literature regarding IT business value area
• Obtain and review further literature on productivity.
• Review and further explore Eviews
• A draft of my project plan

ELEC 4707 Engineering Project

The purpose of this blog will be to keep you up to date with the progress of my engineering thesis due to be complete in Semester 2 2007. A brief overview of my thesis topic is given below:

TOPIC: Exploring the IT complementarities among capital inputs in productivity analysis.

DESCRIPTION:

The ability of Australian firms to take advantage of improvements can be determined in part by substitutability of IT for other input factors of production. The project aims to build on the recent empirical work to study the output and substitution elasticities using various production functions. The empirical results derived in this study can be used to describe the unique characteristics of IT capital in production (i.e. whether IT is a substitute or complements for other factor inputs). Student undertakes this project is expected to carryout review in the Management Information Systems (MIS) literature specifically in the IT business value area and the economic literature particularly on Economic Theory of Production. Student will also require communicating with Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) for data collection and developing analytical skills such as Productivity Analysis, Multivariate Regression Analysis. Some programming skills may be required.

My motivation for selecting this topic was my strong interest in the areas of IT, Econometrics and modelling. By undertaking this topic I hope to further develop my analytical and research skills.