Virtually everyone “believes” (or at least acts as though they believed) that advanced technology (faster broadband, artificial intelligence, IoT, 5G) leads to an increase in productivity. People, organizations, firms and countries that have and use more of such assets are presumed to make faster productivity gains, and generate more economic growth.
The problem, aside from inability to measure precisely, seems to be that the evidence is suspect. It still does not appear that better, faster, more extensive broadband adoption actually is related to productivity gains.
To be sure, productivity measurement always is difficult, in part because there are so many inputs that could contribute. We simply have no way of conducting a controlled experiment.
If there is a direct relationship between broadband and productivity it is hard to measure.
In fact, almost nothing seems to have positively lifted productivity in OECD countries since perhaps 1973.
% growth in GDP/hours worked, 1971–2015
Still, “everyone” acts as though application of advanced technology matters; that better and ubiquitous broadband matters. Perhaps it does. Perhaps productivity would be even lower in the absence of those tools. We simply cannot prove the case.
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