Theme Chosen: Evaluating Economic Growth Through Technological Progress
We explore how innovation reshapes prosperity, jobs, and well-being—and how to measure it honestly. Chosen theme: Evaluating Economic Growth Through Technological Progress. Join the conversation, subscribe for future deep dives, and share your questions.
Measuring Growth in the Age of Innovation
GDP vs. Well-Being in a Tech-Driven Economy
GDP counts transactions, not satisfaction. When an app replaces a paid service, output may look flat even as convenience soars. Tell us: which tech tools improved your life without showing up in GDP?
Total Factor Productivity: The Hidden Engine
Total factor productivity captures gains not explained by labor or capital. It’s where breakthroughs hide—process redesigns, software, and data. Subscribe to get practical tips for reading TFP trends without getting lost in jargon.
Data Pitfalls: Intangibles, Free Goods, and Quality Adjustments
Software, algorithms, and brand equity are investments that accounting often misclassifies. Free digital services complicate valuation, and quality upgrades muddy price indices. Comment with examples where measured prices fell but real value clearly surged.
Case Study: Smartphones and the Productivity Puzzle
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From Feature Phones to Platforms: Complementary Capital
Productivity gains came only after firms retooled workflows, integrated cloud services, and trained people. A courier company we studied cut routing time 35% after redesigning processes, not merely handing out devices.
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Time Saved, Value Created: Measuring the Invisible
Navigation apps reduce uncertainty and stress, yet those benefits rarely hit invoices. Have you quantified time reclaimed by mobile tools? Share your method so others can refine their own impact metrics.
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Lessons for Policymakers and Entrepreneurs
Invest in complementary skills, interoperable platforms, and data standards. Entrepreneurs: design for integration, not just features. Policymakers: measure diffusion, not just invention counts. Subscribe for our worksheet on mapping adoption bottlenecks.
Diffusion and Inequality: Who Gains From Tech-Led Growth?
Early adopters reap outsized gains; late adopters catch up only after infrastructure and standards stabilize. Which sector in your region lags most in digital uptake? Tell us and we’ll feature practical catch-up strategies.
Diffusion and Inequality: Who Gains From Tech-Led Growth?
When tech complements high-skill tasks, wages diverge. Retraining can reverse this—if it’s hands-on and linked to real projects. Comment with training programs that truly changed productivity trajectories in your organization.
Track not only patents but citations, co-authorships, and supplier productivity. A midsize manufacturer doubled yield after adapting a university algorithm, proving indirect R&D returns can dwarf direct project payoffs.
R&D, Patents, and Knowledge Spillovers
Task Reallocation vs. Job Elimination
Our factory case shifted inspectors into anomaly investigation while vision systems handled routine checks, raising throughput 18% and defect detection 26%. Share your before-and-after task maps to benchmark real productivity.
Complementary Investments: Training and Process Redesign
AI succeeds when paired with documentation, workflows, and reskilling. A service team cut response time by half after redesigning triage, not just deploying a model. What training moved your metrics most?
Beyond GDP: New Metrics for Tech-Driven Prosperity
Surveys and choice experiments estimate what people would pay for search, maps, or messaging. Results often imply massive uncounted value. Tell us which free service you’d miss most and why.
When telemedicine saves parents two hours, welfare rises though invoices don’t. Track time savings as a core outcome metric and share your baseline—then subscribe to compare against our community benchmarks.
Tech-enabled efficiency should include resource intensity. Measure output per unit of emissions or materials. Comment if your team runs a carbon-adjusted productivity metric—we’re compiling practical methodologies.
Set Up a Tech Impact Dashboard
Track adoption rates, task times, error rates, customer satisfaction, and TFP proxies. Start simple, iterate weekly, and invite team feedback. Share your template and we’ll feature standout examples.
Experiment, Measure, Iterate
Run small pilots with clear baselines, then A/B test process changes. Celebrate wins, learn from misses, and publish your metrics internally. Subscribe for our quarterly playbook of proven experiments.
Join the Conversation and Subscribe
Comment with your toughest measurement challenge and we’ll respond with tailored guidance. Subscribe to receive case studies, tools, and interviews that make evaluating growth through technology practical and inspiring.