WIFO White Paper: Technological Change and Productivity. Disaggregated Contributions to Growth in Austria Since 1990

Between 1990 and 2004, the average annual growth of total real value added amounted to about 2.38 percent, with +1.33 percentage points contributed by capital output growth, +0.46 percentage point by labour output growth, and +0.85 percentage point by multi-factor productivity growth (as well as minor re-allocation effects). Thus, the contribution of non-factor related technological change, measured in terms of multi-factor productivity, accounted for more than one third of total economic growth. If the quality effects of the shift in factor utilisation towards higher-value production factors resulting from factor-related technological change are included, the average annual contribution to growth stands at +1.49 percentage points, corresponding to a share of 63 percent. Hence, qualitative changes have been responsible for close to two thirds of real value added growth since 1990.