The Productivity Paradox of Information Technology: Review and Assessment

Type	Web Page
Author(s)	Brynjolfsson,E.
Publication year	1993
URL (web address)	http://ccs.mit.edu/papers/CCSWP130/ccswp130.html#1i
Notes	ID: BRYNJOLFSSON1993; In the early 1990s it became clear, to managers and academics alike that - on an economy wide basis - white-collar, or information worker, productivity had not changed substantially for more than a decade, despite massive increases in investment in IT. The net contribution, per head, to GNP output (the high level measure of productivity) fluctuated but, unlike the manufacturing sector, showed no real growth. The same data is referenced by Aronoff and Kaplan (1995) but they make the point that a similar lag occurred early in the 20th century as electric power became available. Only when manufacturing plants switched from centralised power disdribution systems to local ones did major gains accrue. This academic paper contains the graphs and a discussion of what were then seen as the interelated causes. A mere decade later commentators can point to the Internet Revolution, and IT in general, as dramatically changing the very nature of demand for property and underpinning a long boom in western economies. Has the very assessment of productivity got to change?$$ $$
Availability	Online version of refereed paper
Relevance to practice	Low
Ease of application	N/A
Stage of application	N/A
Evidence base	High
Readability	Moderate but a useful online reference to the state of debate only 7 years ago

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