Cited by 1,220Economic Growth and ProductivityEconomic Development and Digital TransformationEconomic Growth and Development

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 153 of the 153 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; 3 of the 22 sources its claims cite were checked for support.

Does the “New Economy” Measure up to the Great Inventions of the Past?

Open access
Gordon, Robert J·2000·Journal of Economic Perspectives

Abstract

During the four years 1995-99 U.S. productivity growth experienced a strong revival and achieved growth rates exceeding that of the “golden age” of 1913-72. Accordingly many observers have declared the “New Economy” to be an Industrial Revolution even more important than the Second Industrial Revolution of 1860-1900, which made the golden age of productivity growth possible. This paper dissects the recent productivity revival, subtracts out a cyclical component, and concludes that there is no revival of the productivity growth trend in the 88 percent of the private economy lying outside of the durables manufacturing sector. The paper explains this surprising finding by pointing to limitations in computers and the internet in comparison with the great inventions of the past.

Overview

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1257/jep.14.4.49

Cites

153 of 153 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Nothing to recompute.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

3 of 22 cited sources checked · 0 supported · 0 flagged · accuracy not yet measured

Show all 61 claims

  • It may state two separate claims as one. 35
  • The quote only partly states this claim. 1
  • Probably not a substantial claim. 14
43 of 43
  • The authors state this as an assumption.

    Actual and trend output were equal in the later stages of upswings in 1954:Q1, 1963:Q3, 1972:Q2, 1978:Q2, 1987:Q3 and 1995:Q4.

    “Moreover, it is assumed that actual and trend output were equal in the later stages of upswings in 1954:Q1, 1963:Q3, 1972:Q2, 1978:Q2, 1987:Q3 and 1995:Q4.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The New Economy is more about computers than pharmaceuticals.

    “But in common discourse, the New Economy is certainly more about computers than pharmaceuticals.”
  • The authors state this as an assumption.

    Word processing is the only use of computers in the demand curve in Figure 3.

    “This is the demand curve for computers which is drawn on the simplified assumption that word processing is the only use of computers, but the point can be made in multiple dimensions.”
3 of 3

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

Each contradiction between two passages listed here was confirmed by an independent check.

  • Electric-motor productivity gains are placed in different centuries

    Minor

    One passage says the productivity benefits of electric light and motors did not arrive until the opening decades of the 21st century. Another says electric motors revolutionized manufacturing in the opening decades of the twentieth century.

1 of 1

Citations

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Show all 59 references

Research works printed but not linked: 15

  1. Bennett Johanna, 2000, Wall Street Journal, 15, B10D
  2. Bulkeley William M, 2000, Wall Street Journal, 5, A4
  3. Byron Christopher, 2000, Fortune, 21, 104
  4. Chow Gregory C, 1967, American Economic Review, 57, 1117
  5. Clark Don, 1999, Wall Street Journal, 21, B7
  6. Cortada James W, 1993, NCR, Burroughs, and Remington Rand and the Industry They Created, 1865
  7. Doan Amy, 2000, Forbes, 21, 140
  8. Farrell Greg, 2000, USA Today, 18, A1
  9. Guernsey Lisa, 2000, New York Times, 5, C10
  10. Ip Greg, 2000, Wall Street Journal, 18, C1
  11. 1998, Summer, 41
  12. Mokyr Joel, 1997, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City Economic Review. Second Quarter, 31
  13. 2000, Wall Street Journal, 17, A1
  14. Uchitelle Louis, 2000, New York Times, 3, 4
  15. Wildstrom Stephen H, 1999, Business Week, 22, 23

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Items 601–700 of 1,220

Metadata

Authors
Gordon, R. J.
Affiliations
Northwestern University (US)
Corresponding author
Gordon, Robert J
Venue
Journal of Economic Perspectives
Published
2000-11-01
Volume
14
Issue
4
Pages
49-74
ISSN
0895-3309 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2142353537
Cited by
1,206
References
59
Citations by year
2026: 8 · 2025: 28 · 2024: 16 · 2023: 14 · 2022: 17 · 2021: 23 · 2020: 21 · 2019: 26 · 2018: 18 · 2017: 19 · 2016: 25 · 2015: 27 · 2014: 22 · 2013: 44 · 2012: 49
FWCI
266.30
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • The Journal of Economic Perspectives (publishedVersion)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Economic Growth and Productivity
  • Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › General Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economic Development and Digital Transformation
  • Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Economic Growth and Development
Keywords
new economy, productivity growth, Second Industrial Revolution, computers, internet, technological change

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

A language model drew the claims from the paper on 2026-10-11, under version 3 of the claim definition (model deepseek-v4.1-flash, prompt extract-v3).

A second model labelled each claim on 2026-10-11 (model jev-1.13-20260917, definition revision gold-guideline-v0.2).

Cited sources are checked with a language model’s help (gpt-6-sol).

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

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