October 27, 2022 | Article
Following decades of slow productivity growth and faltering innovation potency, evidence is building for the existence of two types of novel innovation waves, each potentially having large productivity and welfare impacts—the Digital Age wave and the Deep Science wave.
However, the positive effects of these waves will take a long time to materialize; numerous obstacles, particularly in the area of technology adoption and diffusion, have to be overcome. Digital Age innovation and its advanced information & communications technology solutions need to increase their sophistication if they are to substantially increase productivity in the services sector.
It is also uncertain whether existing productivity metrics are up to capturing the potency of innovation. Many societal preoccupations, and many of the impacts of novel Digital Age and Deep Science innovations, are focused on well-being, including health, better education, the environment, and housing. But they do not necessarily accord with the established productivity concept of producing more with less. This requires a fundamental rethink about how we measure innovation impacts and outcomes.
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