M&G’s Jim Leaviss interviews Professor Robert Gordon author of The Rise and Fall of American Growth
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Professor Gordon’s book can be described as the antidote to techno-optimism. In it, he argues that technology has had far less impact on economic growth in the last few decades than it did during the previous century from 1870-1970. In that time, life changed in every possible dimension for ordinary people, through developments such as electricity, the internal combustion engine, and the eradication of infectious diseases to name only a few.
While there is often a lag between an innovation and its true impact on economic growth, the impact from the development of computers in the 1960s and 1970s has already largely come through. Some of the biggest technological advances in recent years – for example, advances in mobile phones and social media – are largely focused on leisure and won’t affect growth in the same way. Although the more distant (50+ years) future is unknowable, Professor Gordon believes that we already can foresee the innovations that will affect the next 25 years.
