A Tale of Two Tellers

IMF Blog, August 31, 2016

Source details

Narrative contrast between consumer banking in 1973 and in Summer 2016.
Key framing: technological advances over "four decades" leading to large efficiency gains.
Focus of the F&D issue: how technology is driving growth, including smart machines and artificial intelligence.

Example: 1973 drive-through teller process — metal canister sent via pneumatic tube; includes deposit receipt and a lollipop.
Example: Summer 2016 smartphone banking — paycheck deposit made instantly via an app connecting to an electronic banking network.
Conceptual point: advances in computing allow streamlining and replacement of less efficient practices with more efficient ones (analogy to drive-through teller vs. smartphone deposits).
Terminology: "second machine age" — era of smart devices and network-connected machines.

Lead article: Google Chief Economist Hal Varian examines "transmission channels" through which technology drives growth.
Sanjiv Ranjan Das examines big data's influence on economics and finance.
Aditya Narain documents the rise of hybrid financial technology—fintech—firms.
Sharmini Coorey highlights distance learning for better policymaking.

Andrew Berg, Edward Buffie, and Felipe Zanna imagine a future economy heavily dependent on smart machines or robots: output and productivity rise, but so does inequality.
Chris Wellisz examines cybercrime and cybertheft as a darker side of technological advancement, raising the bar on mayhem.

This issue marks Jeff Hayden's last as Editor-in-Chief.
Jeff Hayden served "almost 4 years and 15 issues of F&D" before moving to the job of Publisher of the IMF.
Camilla Andersen succeeds as Editor-in-Chief, working with Managing Editor Marina Primorac, Creative Director Luisa Menjivar, and the editorial team.

Jeff Hayden; August 31, 2016.