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Adoption of New Information and Communications Technologies in the Workplace Today

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  • Timothy Bresnahan
  • Pai-Ling Yin

Abstract

The invention of new applications based on information and communications technologies (ICTs) has had two economic effects up to now. These applications have transformed production, creating value for applications-inventing companies and their customers and increasing economic growth through quality improvements. The same applications have shifted the relative demand for different kinds of labor, raising the demand for already highly compensated managers and professionals relative to other workers. This paper considers the likely impact of new ICT technologies coming into application in the workplace today in light of the economic and technical forces behind ICT application up to now.

Suggested Citation

  • Timothy Bresnahan & Pai-Ling Yin, 2017. "Adoption of New Information and Communications Technologies in the Workplace Today," Innovation Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 17(1), pages 95-124.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:ipolec:doi:10.1086/688846
    DOI: 10.1086/688846
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    3. Gordon, Robert J., 2018. "Declining American economic growth despite ongoing innovation," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 1-12.
    4. Ekaterina Prytkova, 2021. "ICT's Wide Web: a System-Level Analysis of ICT's Industrial Diffusion with Algorithmic Links," Jena Economics Research Papers 2021-005, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    5. Gordon, Robert J., 2018. "Why Has Economic Growth Slowed When Innovation Appears To Be Accelerating?," CEPR Discussion Papers 13039, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    6. Lee, DonHee, 2018. "Strategies for technology-driven service encounters for patient experience satisfaction in hospitals," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 118-127.
    7. Anna S. Melnikova, 2018. "Tools of information infrastructure at high-tech industrial enterprises," Journal of New Economy, Ural State University of Economics, vol. 19(6), pages 123-134, December.
    8. Timothy F Bresnahan, 2019. "Technological change in ICT in light of ideas first learned about the machine tool industry," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 28(2), pages 331-349.
    9. Michael Peneder & Julia Bock-Schappelwein & Matthias Firgo & Oliver Fritz & Gerhard Streicher, 2017. "Ökonomische Effekte der Digitalisierung in Österreich," WIFO Monatsberichte (monthly reports), WIFO, vol. 90(3), pages 177-192, March.
    10. Seamus McGuinness & Konstantinos Pouliakas & Paul Redmond, 2023. "Skills-displacing technological change and its impact on jobs: challenging technological alarmism?," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(3), pages 370-392, April.
    11. Robert J. Gordon, 2018. "Why Has Economic Growth Slowed When Innovation Appears to be Accelerating?," NBER Working Papers 24554, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Chris Forman & Avi Goldfarb, 2021. "Concentration and Agglomeration of IT Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Evidence from Patenting," NBER Chapters, in: The Role of Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Economic Growth, pages 95-121, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. David Marguerit, 2025. "Augmenting or Automating Labor? The Effect of AI Development on New Work, Employment, and Wages," Papers 2503.19159, arXiv.org.
    14. Sang M. Lee & Soon Goo Hong & DonHee Lee, 2024. "A comparative analysis of contactless e-service encounters in online platforms," Service Business, Springer;Pan-Pacific Business Association, vol. 18(1), pages 1-26, March.

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    • O3 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights

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