From: Gerald_A_Levy@MSN.COM
Date: Mon Sep 19 2005 - 12:32:45 EDT
> The productivity paradox that I refer to is the observation > made by Solow, and Roach that computers do not seem to > have made a significant measurable contribution to productivity. <snip, JL> Hi, Paul C: This is an interesting issue, but one that is hard to address abstractly. Putting aside the issue of how productivity is problematically measured in standard theory, the answer to the "productivity paradox" might not be found at the aggregate level. If one were, however, to consider why productivity might not have increased in individual branches of production and sectors after the introduction of specific computer technologies, then one might come up with a number of explanations. E.g. the reason that productivity (as conventionally measured) hasn't increased by the amount anticipated after computers were widely diffused as means of production in offices is quite different from the reasons why productivity hasn't been increased in many cases following the adoption of industrial robotics in assembly-based forms of manufacture. Thus, while this might seem to be a 'macro' issue, the answers might be found only on the 'micro' level. In solidarity, Jerry
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