The Myth Of The Myth Of The New Economy

from the the-new-new-economy? dept

There have been a number of studies over the past couple of decades suggesting that there's no evidence that technology increases productivity. Most of these studies have a very big flaw: they look at numbers in the aggregate. The problem is that many companies implement technology poorly - often hurting productivity. When you add it all up, it usually evens out, suggesting information technology is a waste. Combine studies like that with all the hype about how "revolutionary" the internet was supposed to be and it makes it easy to laugh off the "new economy" as nothing special. However, perhaps people shouldn't throw out the idea of the new economy so quickly. For plenty of companies, there has been quite a revolution in productivity over the past few years - due, in large part, to technology. A lot also has to do with increased competition that has made many business more flexible to change. However, the article suggests that just because we deflated the hype, we shouldn't rule out the potential for the economy to grow again by leaps and bounds thanks to technology.