Return of the Solow Paradox? IT, Productivity, and Employment in US Manufacturing

S-Tier
Journal: American Economic Review
Year: 2014
Volume: 104
Issue: 5
Pages: 394-99

Score contribution per author:

1.609 = (α=2.01 / 5 authors) × 4.0x S-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

An increasingly influential "technological-discontinuity" paradigm suggests that IT-induced technological changes are rapidly raising productivity while making workers redundant. This paper explores the evidence for this view among the IT-using US manufacturing industries. There is some limited support for more rapid productivity growth in IT-intensive industries depending on the exact measures, though not since the late 1990s. Most challenging to this paradigm, and to our expectations, is that output contracts in IT-intensive industries relative to the rest of manufacturing. Productivity increases, when detectable, result from the even faster declines in employment.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:aea:aecrev:v:104:y:2014:i:5:p:394-99
Journal Field
General
Author Count
5
Added to Database
2026-01-24