Information and Communication Technologies did contribute to the US Productivity Revival.

It has long been argued that ICT was a key factor behind the US productivity revival from the mid 1990s. Growth accounting has been used to substantiate this claim, but formal econometric evidence has been lacking at the aggregate level. Recent research by Thomas Barnebeck Andersen (University of Southern Denmark), Jeanet Bentzen, Carl-Johan Dalgaard and Pablo Selaya (all from the Department), provides this missing econometric evidence using state-level data for the USA, spanning the last roughly 40 years. The paper, entitled “Lightning, IT diffusion and Economic Growth across US states”, has been accepted for publication at The Review of Economics and Statistics. The paper is available here.