ABSTRACT
Until the end of 2000 there seemed to be a broad consensus in the economy that the increasingly intensive use of modern information and communication technologies (ICTs) had brought about a sustainable acceleration of growth and productivity. This was certainly the case in the US, which was the undisputed leader of this development. The economic upswing that the US had been experiencing since the beginning of the 1990s differed significantly from previous ones. Thus, at the Lisbon Summit in March 2000, following the US example, EU leaders decided to set their target at a 3 percent minimum annual real GNP growth rate over the next decade.
