What's New About the New Economy? IT, Economic Growth and Productivity

Has the economy fundamentally changed in the 1990s because of the introduction of information technology or is the impact of IT not so much "new" as larger than before? In this article, Barry Bosworth and Jack Triplett of the Brooking Institution examine this issue with a detailed analysis of productivity developments in the U.S. economy in the 1990s. Their main message is that the although IT is the driving force behind the recent acceleration of labour productivity growth, its impact can indeed still be understood within the standard growth accounting framework. Like Stiroh, they argue that there is little reason to believe productivity gains arising from IT will end in the near future.