Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • September 2017
  • Teaching Note
  • HBS Case Collection

The Productivity Decline: Demographics, Robots, or Globalization?

By: Laura Alfaro and Hayley Pallan
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
  • | Pages:17
ShareBar

Abstract

In the early 21st century, there was a noticeable trend of declining productivity growth. Despite the persistent decline in productivity growth, a consensus on its explanation had not been reached. Some of the debate focused on the technicalities of productivity measurement, and the structural shift involved with the increased usage and introduction of robots in place of workers, garnering the interest of academic economists, businesses and policymakers. Another contention was whether declining productivity was the result of secular stagnation, a more permanent economic state of low growth and lack of economic progress, or whether it was the result of deleveraging and the post-Global Financial Crisis period, a mere cyclical phase. Distilling the sources and drivers of productivity decline was further complicated by the rise in economic integration across countries, and even more so considering research findings that research and innovation was becoming less productive and more difficult. What, if anything, was the role of government? Should businesses play a role? If so what should they do? Teaching Note for HBS No. 718-013.

Keywords

Performance Productivity; Measurement and Metrics; Technological Innovation; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Globalization; Business and Government Relations

Citation

Alfaro, Laura, and Hayley Pallan. "The Productivity Decline: Demographics, Robots, or Globalization?" Harvard Business School Teaching Note 718-014, September 2017.
  • Purchase

About The Author

Laura Alfaro

General Management
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • February 2023
    • Faculty Research

    Doing Business in Boston, Massachusetts

    By: Laura Alfaro, Leonard A. Schlesinger and Zeke Gillman
    • September 2022
    • Management Science

    Health Externalities and Policy: The Role of Social Preferences

    By: Laura Alfaro, Ester Faia, Nora Lamersdorf and Farzad Saidi
    • July 2022
    • Faculty Research

    FIELD Immersion 2022: Lawrence, Massachusetts

    By: Laura Alfaro and Tom Quinn
More from the Authors
  • Doing Business in Boston, Massachusetts By: Laura Alfaro, Leonard A. Schlesinger and Zeke Gillman
  • Health Externalities and Policy: The Role of Social Preferences By: Laura Alfaro, Ester Faia, Nora Lamersdorf and Farzad Saidi
  • FIELD Immersion 2022: Lawrence, Massachusetts By: Laura Alfaro and Tom Quinn
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College