Leveraging the twin transition: the impact of green and digital investment on firms’ performance

This paper investigates the impact of green, digital, and twin transition investments on firm performance in Italy during the 2014–2020 programming period. Drawing on project level data from the OpenCoesione platform on ERDF funded initiatives, we classify investments according to their thematic focus and apply a staggered Difference-in-Differences approach to estimate their effects on value added, employment, and labour productivity. Our results show that firms supported through twin transition projects, those combining green and digital components, achieve the most substantial and sustained gains in value added and productivity. These integrated interventions appear particularly effective in enhancing firm…