The Diffusion of New Information Technologies and Productivity Growth.

This paper investigates the effects of the rates of diffusion of the cluster of new information technologies on the growth of output and total factor productivity in the main OECD and industrializing countries in the late eighties. This diffusion approach contrasts the technology production function framework. It predicts that the rates of generation of new technologies are much less effective than the rates of diffusion and the investment efforts in determining the growth of labor productivity especially when capital-intensive technologies which command high levels of investments are considered. The results make it possible to elaborate and assess empirically the notion of key-technologies that provide better externalities to the rest of the system.