Return of the Solow Paradox? IT, Productivity, and Employment in U.S. Manufacturing

Daron Acemoglu, David Autor, David Dorn, Gordon Hanson and Brendan Price

No 19837, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

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 U.S. 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 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.

JEL-codes: J2 L60 O3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eff and nep-tid
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (132)

Published as Daron Acemoglu & David Autor & David Dorn & Gordon H. Hanson & Brendan Price, 2014. "Return of the Solow Paradox? IT, Productivity, and Employment in US Manufacturing," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(5), pages 394-99, May.

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Journal Article: Return of the Solow Paradox? IT, Productivity, and Employment in US Manufacturing (2014)
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