ABSTRACT
This chapter provides the available cross-country evidence on the extent and the contribution to growth of 'new economy' activities in the OECD, and in particular in the European Union (EU), in 1991–97. Information technology activities did make a contribution to growth in the EU too. The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) statistical amendments have possibly contributed to the sizable upward revision of the estimated contribution of new technologies to growth shown in some studies. The growth acceleration in the second part of the 1990s – in Gordon's view – is the combined effect of the BEA revision and of an unusually strong cyclical upswing, originating from, but also largely confined to, the computer-producing sector. The chapter discusses the size of the new economy in Europe and other OECD countries is measured in terms of Information and Communication spending and investment.
