U.S. productivity growth has accelerated in recent years, despite a series of negative economic shocks. An analysis of the sources of this growth over the 1995-2003 period suggests that the production and use of information technology account for a large share of the gains. The authors project...

Although firms have invested billions of dollars in information technology to boost their productivity, many analysts continue to question whether these investments do in fact lead to productivity gains. An industry-level analysis of productivity performance provides robust evidence of a link,...

Although loan quality in the U.S. banking industry deteriorated in recent years, a comparison with the banking crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s suggests that the industry is in a far better position today than it was a decade ago. The percentage of troubled loans is lower, loan quality...

A new index of the U.S. high-tech sector, drawing upon a range of technology-specific data, has the potential to offer a more timely assessment of economic activity than has been possible to date. The index suggests that while the tech sector has rebounded from its poor performance in the...

In recent years, the nation's largest bank holding companies have sharply increased their market share of assets. Have these institutions achieved their dominance by expanding their existing subsidiaries or by merging with other bank holding companies? A study of industry data for 1990-99...

Strikingly high rates of labor productivity growth in China, India, and other emerging economies have prompted concerns that U.S. workers and firms are losing ground to their competitors in world markets. A closer look at the evidence, however, suggests that rapid foreign productivity growth...