Faculty of Economics and Business, Maribor (EPF)
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  • Is there really nothing new about the new economy?
    Močnik, Dijana
    U.S. Northwestern University economist Robert Gordon stated in his paper in Journal of Economic Perspective (2000) that computers didn't contribute much to productivity. To Gordon, the Internet and ... computers have had and will have little impact on productivity. He argues that Internet and computer technologies pale in comparison with the great innovations of the early 20th century, including electricity, internal combustion engines, chemistry, telephone and telegraph communications and indoor plumbing. He argues that all the gains of the second industrial innovations contributed directly to higher productivity. He stated that even when they didn't contribute directly, they certainly had some impact on quality of life. He argues there is nothing truly world changing, if those achievements are compared with the achievements of digital age. In our paper, we challenge his opinion and show that computers and the Internet are the fuel on which modern businesses are run, governments rule, and societies become better connected. Computers and the Internet help us create, access and visualize information in previously inconceivable ways and forms. This created many new combinations in the form of new goods and services and increased variety but almost none of this is captured in the productivity statistics. In spite of the importance that computers and the Internet have in our world it is not easy to measure it. Firstly, because the effects of technological change are not prompt but rather delayed in the future. Secondly, because information and communication technology is high capital and skilled labor-intensive.
    Source: Proceedings of The WOSC 13th International Congress of Cybernetics and Systems, 6-10 July, 2005, Maribor, Slovenia (Vol. 2, str. 55-62)
    Type of material - conference contribution
    Publish date - 2005
    Language - english
    COBISS.SI-ID - 8157468

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