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Changes in Technological Progress and Its Contribution to Economic Growth

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Week 8: Current Event Four

Changes in Technological Progress and its Contribution to Economic Growth

This paper addresses this question by looking at how the behavior of labor productivity grew at a significantly faster rate in the late 90's. The New Economy hypothesis to be examined is whether investment in IT caused the acceleration in productivity. The evidence suggests a growing consensus on two conclusions (Feroli 2001). Information technology is an important factor in the recent acceleration productivity growth (Feroli 2001). Both the production and the use of IT contributed to the productivity revival (Feroli 2001). Information-led development (ILD) most commonly refers to a development strategy whereby a developing country makes a primary economic policy focus the creation and development of a national information technology (IT) sector with the express aim of relying on this sector as an engine of growth (Wikipedia, 2009). While forecasting productivity growth is a chancy and often unsuccessful enterprise, there is some reason to believe that the acceleration in labor productivity could persist for several more years (Feroli 2001). This guarded optimism is informed by recurrent them in the literature that investments in IT manifest themselves in higher productivity with a lag of a few years (Feroli 2001). Information technology can affect aggregate labor productivity through two channels: the production of IT and the use of IT. There are a few questions that IT production has exhibited phenomenal productivity growth (Feroli 2001). This probably is best illustrated in the case of semiconductors. In the 1960's Gordon Moore, the founder of Intel, predicted that microprocessor would double every 18 months. The prediction was accurate enough that became known as Moore's Law (Feroli).

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