Back Produktivitätsparadoxon German Paradoja de la productividad Spanish Tuottavuusparadoksi Finnish Paradoxe de la productivité French פרדוקס הפריון HE Productiviteitsparadox Dutch Produktivitetsparadoxen Swedish Парадокс продуктивності Ukrainian 生產力悖論 Chinese
The productivity paradox refers to the slowdown in productivity growth in the United States in the 1970s and 1980s despite rapid development in the field of information technology (IT) over the same period. The term was coined by Erik Brynjolfsson in a 1993 paper ("The Productivity Paradox of IT")[1] inspired by a quip by Nobel Laureate Robert Solow "You can see the computer age everywhere but in the productivity statistics."[2] For this reason, it is also sometimes also referred to as the Solow paradox.
The productivity paradox inspired many research efforts at explaining the slowdown, only for the paradox to disappear with renewed productivity growth in the developed countries in the 1990s. However, issues raised by those research efforts remain important in the study of productivity growth in general, and became important again when productivity growth slowed around the world again from the 2000s to the present day. Thus the term "productivity paradox" can also refer to the more general disconnect between powerful computer technologies and weak productivity growth.[3]
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Brynjolfsson1993was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Robert Solow, "We'd better watch out", New York Times Book Review, July 12, 1987, page 36. See here.
- ^ Wachter, Robert M.; Brynjolfsson, Erik (2024-01-02). "Will Generative Artificial Intelligence Deliver on Its Promise in Health Care?". JAMA. 331 (1): 65–69. doi:10.1001/jama.2023.25054. ISSN 0098-7484. PMID 38032660.