This paper presents a firm-level analysis of the recent productivity slowdown in Italy. It applies Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) techniques to firm-level data collected by means of annual surveys on the economic accounts of enterprises carried out by the Italian National Statistical Institute (ISTAT). The paper also measures changes in total factor productivity (TFP) that occurred during the years 1996-1999 for 31 industries and breaks these down into technological change (a shift in the production frontier) and changes in relative technical inefficiency (due to modifications in the distance of single firms from the frontier). This decomposition is helpful in interpreting the nature of the distance of single firms from the frontier). This decomposition is helpful in interpreting the nature of the observed productivity slowdown. Econometric regressions of firms' TFP changes for a number of variables, including a component pointing to the ratio of ICT in total capital input, reveal that information and communication technologies appear to have had a positive and significant impact on TFP in all industries during the period examined.