Chart of the Week: The Productivity Puzzle

IMF Blog, March 13, 2017

Source details

Technological change appears to be accelerating (examples cited: driverless cars, robot lawyers, 3D-printed human organs).
Such advances should raise standards of living by producing more goods and services with less capital and fewer hours of work—that is, by being more productive.
Paraphrasing Robert Solow: technological change is visible everywhere but not showing up in productivity statistics.

Output per worker has slowed sharply over the past decade.
Total factor productivity—which measures the overall productivity of both labor and capital and reflects elements such as technology—has also slowed sharply over the past decade.
Possible explanations discussed in the source:
- Aging populations in advanced economies may have gradually become a drag on productivity.
- A fading information and communications technology boom may be contributing to the slowdown.
- The global financial crisis has played a decisive role, according to the authors of Gone with the Headwinds: Global Productivity (an IMF paper referenced for forthcoming release).

The March issue of Finance and Development includes "Stuck in a Rut" by Gustavo Adler and Romain Duval, which examines why productivity is falling and what can be done about it.
An IMF Staff Discussion Note by the authors (Gone with the Headwinds: Global Productivity) is referenced for release in April.

Source: Chart of the Week: The Productivity Puzzle — iMFdirect, March 13, 2017.