"Informationalization" of Economic Activities and Economic Growth

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The paper is an attempt to measure the contribution of new information technology to the recent growth of the Japanese economy. It develops an empirical method by combining input-output analysis and factor-productivity approach and applies it to the data describing the growth of the Japanese economy for the period of 1974-83. It is found that approximately 5% of the annual growth of the Japanese economy during this period is explained by the development of new information technology, and that without such information technology per capita national income of Japan in 1984 would have been lower approximately by 12% than its actual level.The development of new information technology has increased the efficiency of the activities of the Japanese society in general, and the aggregate productivity of the nation in particular, thereby contributing to the growth of the Japanese economy. The objective of the paper is to measure how much this contribution was.The following analytical strategy wi … More ll be used. First, an input-output model of the Japanese economy is constructed with two sectors, the new information sector (H-sector) and the other sector (Z-sector). By using the 'pricevalue-added version' of the input-output model, the value of the output of each sector is divided into H- and Z-components. Both direct and indirect effects of new information technology are taken into account. Second, series of the real H-capital and the real Z-capital are constructed by using H- and A-price deflators, respectively. It is noted that an economic characteristic of new information technology lies in the rapid increase in its capacity and the rapid decrease in its price; our calculation shows that the real H-capital during the period in question is increased by approximately 300 times, contributing to the growth of the Japanese economy significantly. Finally, the standard factor-productivity model is used to estimate the contribution of new information technology by dividing the annual rates of growth into H- and Z- components. Less