The contrast between the pace of technology breakthroughs and productivity in developed economies is disconcerting. Whereas new technologies are being developed in many key sectors such as energy, biotechnologies, finance, defense and, last but not least, information technologies, the data on productivity growth are very disappointing.
This « productivity puzzle » leads to a debate among economists that takes several avenues from deep skepticism about the actual consequences of these innovations to technical discussions between statisticians on the measurement of the actual output and hence productivity growth.
One of the key concerns, however, is to get innovation out of the tech intensive sectors into the bulk of the economy.