Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-m8qmq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-18T05:42:12.633Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

17 - Contributions of input-output analysis to the understanding of technological change: the information sector in the United States

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 September 2009

Erik Dietzenbacher
Affiliation:
Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, The Netherlands
Michael L. Lahr
Affiliation:
Rutgers University, New Jersey
Get access

Summary

By means of reckoning appropriate to such interdependence [as that of input-output analysis], the quantification can do much to clarify otherwise elusive structural relations. These relations, moreover, may be consequential for one or another practical purpose.

(Bergson, 2000)

Methodological issues

The outcome of years of technical change within the economy of the United States is impressive, and of great importance in interpreting the economic performance of the 1990s (and before) and the early twentyfirst century. Macrodynamic statistics are both indicative and provocative, but they do not tell the story of what has been going on within the economy. The purpose of the present paper is to investigate some of the internal workings of information technology (IT) through the eyes of the input-output accounts for 1972 to 1996.

Semi-annually, the Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes International Comparisons of Manufacturing Productivity and Unit Labor Cost Trends. In its release of October 17, 2000, it reports the percentage change in manufacturing output per hour during 1999. The bar for the United States in figure 17.1, covering comparable data for ten major industrial countries, shows a towering figure of 6.2% growth for 1999, far above the other bars.

It has not always been so, but in many respects the performance of the US economy in the 1990s has been excellent in producing record non-infiationary output expansion, and much of this success rests upon the productivity performance of the economy.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×