ABSTRACT
The economic effects of, and the nature of the changes occasioned by, electrification prove more obvious now than they likely did in the midst of the Depression in the 1930s. At issue in the late 1980s, however, was whether the ubiquitous infiltration of ICT into commercial activity would reinvigorate economic growth. The preponderance of the growing evidence revealed by the studies suggests strongly that ICT usage can be a catalyst of growth. The strongest evidence of the relationship derives from detailed examination of the rise of American productivity in the second half of the 1990s, followed by the performance of other economically advanced countries whose experiences reproduce many aspects of American performance although not as widely or uniformly. Investing massively in telecommunications infrastructure and ICT hardware and software alone will not lead to economic growth unless a country is able to produce an adequate pool of skilled workers to take advantage of ICT's opportunities.
