[Joseph_E._Stiglitz,_Carl_E._Walsh]_Economics(Bookos.org) (1)

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COMPUTERS AND INCREASED PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH
If the recent increases in productivity growth are due to new
information and computer technologies, then we might expect
that all the major industrialized economies would be benefiting
from them. Panel A shows average labor productivity growth
for the seven advanced economies known since 1976 as the
“Group of Seven,” or the G-7 (the G-7 became the G-8 with the
addition of the Russian Federation in 1998). As the chart shows,
only the United States has seen labor productivity increase
in recent years. For all the other members of the group, productivity
growth was higher from 1980 to 1995 than it has been
since. Yet the new information and computer technologies are
available to all these countries; so why hasn’t growth increased
in all of them? Should we conclude that the new technologies
are not the source of America’s increased productivity growth?
Perhaps the acceleration in U.S. productivity growth has
not been matched in these other industrialized economies
PRODUCTIVITY CHANGE
B
1.5
1.0
U.S.
0.5
0
Canada
–0.5
–1.0
–1.5
Germany
France
Italy
U.K.
Japan
–2.0
0 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25 0.30 0.35
PCs PER CAPITA, 1995
PCS AND PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH
3.5
A
LABOR PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH (%)
3.0
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
1980 –1995
1995–1998
0.0
Canada
France Germany Italy Japan U.K. U.S.
PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH IN THE G–7 COUNTRIES
598 ∂ CHAPTER 27 GROWTH AND PRODUCTIVITY