Information technology and productivity: where are we now and where are we going?

Productivity growth in the U.S. economy jumped during the second half of the 1990s, a resurgence that many analysts linked to developments in information technology (IT). However, shortly after this consensus emerged, demand for IT products fell sharply, leading to a debate about the connection between IT and productivity and about the sustainability of the faster growth. ; This article contributes to this debate in two ways. First, the authors provide updated estimates of the proximate sources of growth using a growth accounting framework that focuses on information technology. Their results confirm that the acceleration in labor productivity after 1995 was driven by the greater use of IT capital goods and the more rapid efficiency gains in the production of these goods. Second, to assess whether the pickup in productivity growth is sustainable, the authors analyze the steady-state properties of a multisector growth model. This exercise generates a range for labor productivity growth of 2 percent to 2 3/4 percent per year, which suggests that much-and possibly all-of the resurgence is sustainable. ; The analysis also highlights that future increases in output will depend on the pace of technological advance in the semiconductor industry and on the extent to which products embodying these advances diffuse through the economy.Information technology ; Productivity ; Technology ; Economic development

The water we were swimming in: transgender and gender nonconforming students\u27 lived experiences in engineering.

Few studies address the lived experiences of transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) students in engineering. Grounded in critical trans politics (Spade, 2015), this dissertation contributes to the literature on TGNC students in engineering by examining their experiences negotiating their identities while navigating interrelated systems of oppression in a field dominated by White, heterosexual, cisgender men. Using a critical constructivism framework, I conducted a narrative inquiry to explore the lived experiences of five TGNC students in engineering programs. Participants experienced TGNC oppression at their universities, built LGBTQ+ and TGNC communities, and described more welcoming climates in non-engineering contexts compared to engineering. Their perceptions of the engineering climate included: mental health struggles tied to a rigorous and unforgiving curriculum, underrepresentation of their identities, oppressive gender dynamics, and impersonal depoliticization (Cech, 2013) in their departments. When negotiating their identities in engineering curricular contexts, participants discussed erasure of their TGNC identities, mental burdens, isolation, and ways they found (a lack of) support in their program. Participants expressed varying degrees of comfort and support in co-curricular contexts. In relation to engineering industry, or community contexts, participants shared their anxieties in anticipation of negotiating their identities in a potentially unwelcoming or oppressive company as well as actions they took to assess their work environment during their internships. Participants also highlighted strengths they used in negotiating their identities and persisting through their engineering program including self-preservation, compassion, and building a supportive community of people with whom they could decompress and validate one another. The continued administrative violence (Spade, 2015) of TGNC individuals at interpersonal, departmental, and institutional levels impedes TGNC liberation, though administrators, educators, and professionals can undo oppressive systems by centering TGNC students in engineering

Frequency-scanned focused leaky-wave antennas for direction-of-arrival detection in proximity BLE sensing applications

The synthesis of monopulse functions in the Fresnel region, using near-field focused leaky-wave antenas (LWA), is presented in this work. The focusing technique, combined with the frequency-scanning behavior of LWAs, allows for obtaining well-defined radiation patterns in the vicinity of the antenna, which properly overlap to obtain the scanning monopulse functions. This is not possible with conventional far-field focused antennas, in which the radiation pattern is very distorted in the near-field region. As a proof of concept, examples using the three advertising channels provided by the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) protocol are shown. These channels (#37, #38 and #39) are placed at 2.402, 2.426 and 2.48 GHz, respectively. The near-field monopulse synthesis is interesting for Direction-of-Arrival (DoA) detection in proximity sensing applications.This work has been supported by Spanish National project TEC2016-75934-C4-4-R

How Fast Do Personal Computers Depreciate? Concepts and New Estimates

This paper provides new estimates of depreciation rates for personal computers using an extensive database of prices of used PCs. Our results show that PCs lose roughly half their remaining value, on average, with each additional year of use. We decompose that decline into age-related depreciation and a revaluation effect, where the latter effect is driven by the steep ongoing drop in the constant-quality prices of newly-introduced PCs. Our results are directly applicable for measuring the depreciation of PCs in the National Income and Product Accounts (NIPAs) and were incorporated into the December 2003 comprehensive NIPA revision. Regarding tax policy, our estimates suggest that the current tax depreciation schedule for PCs closely tracks the actual loss of value in a zero-inflation environment. However, because the tax code is not indexed for inflation, the tax allowances would be too small in present value for inflation rates above the very low level now prevailing.

What Kind of Future Will Our Children Inherit?

Over the years, my students, research associates, and I have reviewed the literature of psychology, ethics, ecology, climatology, and other areas of study to consider the direction in which our world is going and what kind of future our children will inherit. Our previous work focused on the nature of good and evil—with concern especially for goodness—through which we have considered good in the world and the application of good to achieve a better world. Our books concerned altruism, kindness, empathy, and moral responsibility for diverse others. In this book we concentrate on the areas of greatest concern regarding our future as a species. Scholars are warning us about the direction we are taking in this interconnected world. Many of these experts view our global situation as a “glass half empty”; their studies reveal a future that is bleak and on the verge of catastrophe. There are, however, other scholars who view the world and humanity’s future in more optimistic terms—those who see the “glass half full.” My own work indicates that goodness, defined as concern for others and for making the world a better place, is on the rise. Making the world a better place is not simply about the glass being half full or half empty; it is both at the same time. With the complexity of global trends comes major challenges, and one cannot say that one perception is correct and the other incorrect. It is much more complicated than that. We have an emergence of those who see the future as promising and perhaps even more harmonious than we have ever imagined, as well as those who believe that we are declining and ruining ourselves. A number of institutions, groups, governments, and individuals have taken these challenges to humanity seriously—have “seen the light”—and are trying to do something about the future state of the world. This book describes two sides to the future our children stand to inherit: the glass half full and the glass half empty of what has been the trajectory of the world, it seems, since the beginning of human history. The arc of human progress has at times taken major leaps forward; at other times it appears to have lain dormant, only to burst forth with a new energy at a later time. In this collection of writings, we have attempted to show both sides of the picture because to do otherwise would leave this endeavor incomplete. Depicting only the negative would lead one to think that there is nothing positive moving us forward; depicting only the positive would suggest that we have no further work to do. What kind of future will our children inherit? It is a future like all futures—it contains both an evolution of our species towards a higher level of consciousness and a resistance to such change. This has been the balancing act throughout human history. It will be incumbent upon our children to make sure that the glass of the future is half full. - Sam Oliner, Founder, Altruistic Behavior Institutehttps://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu/monographs/1014/thumbnail.jp