The productivity paradox of information technology

The retationship between information technology IT and productivity is widely discussed but little understood. Delivered computing power in the U.S. economy has increased by more than two orders of magnitude since 1970 (Figure 1) yet productivity, especially in the service sector, seems to have stagnated (Figure 2). Given the enormous promise of IT to usher in «the biggest technological revolution men have known» [29], disillusionment and even frustration with the technology is increasingly evident in statements like «No, computers do not boost productivity, at least not most of the time» [13]. The increased interest in the «productivity paradox,» as it has become known, has engendered a significant amount of research, but thus far, this has only deepened the mystery