Research

Work in progress · 2026

Data, Software, and Credit: Bank Lending Constraints and Digital Investment in Europe

With Lise Patureau, Fabien Tripier, Marine Charlotte André and Julie Delanote

Using linked EIBIS, Orbis and BankFocus data for European firms, we study how financing conditions shape investment in software and databases and the associated productivity gains. Data-related investment is associated with higher labour productivity and TFPR, while bank credit constraints bind more clearly for tangible investment.

Presented at

International Workshop on AI in the Product, Factor and Financial Markets, Urbino, 18 September 2026.
EEA-ESEM 2026, 17–21 August 2026.
24th ZEW Conference on the Economics of Information and Communication Technologies, 25–26 June 2026.
3rd Global INTAN-Invest Conference, 7–8 May 2026.

Work in progress · 2026

The Carbon Cost of Compute: AI, Data Externalities, and Climate Policy

Solo-authored

We develop a dynamic general-equilibrium model in which carbon-intensive compute and unpriced household-generated data produce AI services. AI can raise emissions before delivering economic gains, while carbon pricing still cuts emissions at modest output cost. The welfare-maximizing carbon tax lies below the social cost of carbon, with market power explaining most of the gap and the data externality playing a smaller role.

Presented at

7th World Congress of Environmental and Resource Economists (WCERE 2026), Lisbon, 29 June–3 July 2026.
Dauphine LEDa PhD Workshop, 18 May 2026.
UPF-CREI Macroeconomic Lunch, UPF Barcelona, 26 November 2025.

Work in progress · 2026

Two Faces of Data: Productivity and Markups in the Digital Age

With Isaac Baley and Alejandro Rábano

Slides

We study whether data widens firm inequality through productivity, market power, or both. A model with separate innovation and marketing data is paired with French firm-level evidence: production data are associated with higher TFPR, while consumer data are associated with higher markups.

Presented at

International Workshop on AI in the Product, Factor and Financial Markets, Urbino, 19 September 2026.
PSL Paris Dauphine PhD Retreat, Cévennes, 2026.

Published articles

Schmidt, J., G. Pilgrim and A. Mourougane (2026), “Mapping Labor Demand for Data-Intensive Work in the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States”, Review of Income and Wealth, 72(1), February.
Mourougane, A., P. Knutsson, R. Pazos, J. Schmidt and F. Palermo, “Tracking developments in global supply chains in real time”, Economic Systems Research, 1–19.

Policy work

AI and data

Schmidt, J., G. Pilgrim and A. Mourougane (2024), “Measuring the demand for AI skills in the United Kingdom”, OECD Artificial Intelligence Papers, No. 25, OECD Publishing, Paris.
Schmidt, J., G. Pilgrim and A. Mourougane (2024), “Towards a better understanding of data-intensive firms in the United Kingdom”, OECD Statistics Working Papers, No. 2024/07, OECD Publishing, Paris.
Schmidt, J., G. Pilgrim and A. Mourougane (2023), “What is the role of data in jobs in the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States?: A natural language processing approach”, OECD Statistics Working Papers, No. 2023/05, OECD Publishing, Paris.
Schmidt, J. and G. Zappalà (2021), Statistics about statistics: How do we measure statistical performance? World Bank Data Blog.
Misra, A. and J. Schmidt (2020), Enhancing Trust in Data: Participatory Data Ecosystems for the Post-Covid Society. OECD Shaping the COVID-19 Recovery Working Paper.

Nowcasting

Dorville, Y. et al. (2025), “Towards more timely measures of labour productivity growth”, OECD Statistics Working Papers, No. 2025/01, OECD Publishing, Paris.
Mourougane, A. et al. (2023), “Nowcasting trade in value added indicators”, OECD Statistics Working Papers, No. 2023/03, OECD Publishing, Paris.

Regional development and inequality

Schmidt, J. (2019), EU Cohesion Policy: A suitable tool to foster innovation? Policy Brief, Bertelsmann Stiftung.
Kastrop, C., D. Ponattu, J. Schmidt and S. Schmidt (2019), The Urban-Rural Divide and Regionally Inclusive Growth in the Digital Age. G20 Insights Policy Brief.
Kastrop, C., D. Ponattu and J. Schmidt (2019), Inequality and the productivity slowdown: The growing gap between the most productive and the rest dampens social cohesion. Global Solutions Journal, Issue 4, pp. 30–33.