The productivity paradox: A meta-analysis

The impact of ICT (information and communication technology) on economic performance has been the subject of academic research for several decades, and despite the remarkable and significant innovation in computer technology, usage, and investments, only a small growth in productivity was observed. This observations has been coined the productivity paradox. This paper meta-analytical methods to examine publication bias and size of ICT elasticity. The empirical part is based on a collection of more than 800 estimates of IT payoff effects from almost 70 studies written in the last 20 years. The metaanalysis reveals strong presence of publication bias within ICT productivity literature and using mixed effect multilevel model estimates the ICT elasticity to be only 0.3%, which is more than ten times smaller than what was reported by previous meta-analysis 10 years ago.