ICT and Productivity: Identification and Contribution of ICT effects in Empirical Research

Productivity is an important indicator of the prosperity and living standards of an economy. It makes it possible to summarise how effective input factors can be transformed into output. For decades the European growth model was crowned with success; over the course of the current crisis, however, it has become clear that this growth model is being pushed to its limits. A comparison with the USA shows that Europe still has some catching up to do as far as productivity growth is concerned. Since the mid 1990s growth in productivity in the USA has been higher than in Europe. A major factor at the root of the weakness in European growth is the limited use and diffusion of infornation and communication technology compared to the USA.