NEWS: productivity growth, IT as a competitive advantage

Two interesting articles from the Knowledge@Wharton (free subscription) and the MIT Technology Review about:
- productivity growth in the last years
- the usage of IT as a competitive advantage.

Three short abstracts:

US labor productivity grew by:

- 1.4% from the 70s into the 90s
- 2.5% since 1995
- 4% since 2001.

It takes about 50 years for living standards to double if productivity grows at 1.4%, only 18 years to double at 4% growth.

A century ago, an exciting technology - electricity - was being introduced. by itself, electricity did nothing for productivity. It took 40 years for businesses to find out ways to use it efficiently and to change their processes.