TECHNOLOGY AND GROWTH - AN OVERVIEW

During the 1990s, the Federal Reserve has pursued its twin goals of pr ice stability and steady employment with considerable success. But des pite-or perhaps because of-this success, concerns about the pace of ec onomic and productivity growth have attracted renewed attention. Many observers ruefully note that the average pace of GDP growth has remain ed below rates achieved in the 1960s and that a period of rapid invest ment in computers and other capital equipment has had disappointingly little impact on the productivity numbers. Most of the industrial worl d has experienced a similar decline in trend and productivity growth, an increase in income inequality, and even slower job creation than we have seen here in the United States. Many members of the economics pr ofession concur with The Economist that ''understanding growth is sure ly the most urgent task in economics,'' and the last few years have se en a resurgence in research on the economics of growth. For these reas ons, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston devoted its fortieth economic conference, held in June 1996, to Technology and Growth, to explore wh at we know and clarify what we do not know about the issues. This arti cle reviews the presentations at the conference and the themes that em erged from the ensuing discussions.