Research
BPEA | 1994 No. 2Computers and Output Growth Revisited: How Big is the Puzzle?
Discussants:
Robert J. Gordon and
Robert J. Gordon
Stanley G. Harris Professor of the Social Sciences
- Northwestern University
Jack E. Triplett
Jack E. Triplett
Former Brookings Expert
Robert J. Gordon
Stanley G. Harris Professor of the Social Sciences
- Northwestern University
Jack E. Triplett
Former Brookings Expert
1994, No. 2
DURING THE PAST 15 years, U.S. companies have poured billions of dollars
into information technology. Yet, through the 1980s, many observers
argued that these companies were not getting their money’s worth.
As hard as analysts scoured the numbers, they could not show that computing
equipment contributed much to productivity growth, leading to
Robert Solow’s famous quip that “you can see the computer age everywhere
but in the productivity statistics.”