The Impact of Digital Technologies on Self-Employment Dynamics in Italy

Abstract This paper examines the causal impact of the adoption of advanced automation and big data on the dynamics of self-employed workers in Italy between 2015 and 2019. Combining data on employment dynamics and on technology adoption at the level of provinces and macrosectors, the analysis shows that the two technologies exert different effects. Advanced automation has a negative impact on the shares of self-employed individuals, whereas the opposite is found for big data. In both cases, the effects are primarily driven by solo self-employed workers (i.e., self-employed individuals without employees). These results are consistent with theories predicting that big data fosters opportunity-based forms of entrepreneurship, whereas advanced automation is associated with a generalized worsening of working arrangements.