The aim of the seminar is to investigate the apparent discrepancy between recent rapid and pervasive technological change and the long-term fall in the rate of growth of total factor productivity and of gross national product. The seminar will permit the findings of recent and ongoing U.S.studies to be integrated into an international empirical and analytical framework allowing for a comparison of results, an analytical confrontation with European and Japanese approaches. The above issue will be examined from four main angles: the measurement of technical change and the calculation of factor produtivity; the management of the productive resources, the organization of firms in the face of current change and obstacles to the diffusion of new technologies; the relationships, interface and interactions between current major technological development and its structural impact on the orgnization of the manufacturing service sectors; economic growth modelling, macro/micro relationships and macro-economic policy for technical change and growth. The seminar will map out areas of economic and social research that is required for improved policy making to facilitate the diffusion and adoption of new technologies and their subsequent development. It is also anticipated to provide the U.S. with new information on measuring economic returns to R&D.
