During the 1990s, the United States experienced an upsurge in economic growth. Despite the fact that some of thisacceleration was of a purely cyclical nature, more long-term structural explanations were also proposed, in particularthe role of information and communication (ICT) capital and the production of ICT assets. The contrast between the US’s growth record and the much more modest progress of the European Union (EU) was sometimes interpreted as being the result of the EU’s backwardness in the use and production of assets related to new technologies.

‘Growth, capital measurement and new technologies’ are the main topics addressed in this book, which is the result of thecontributions presented and discussed at an international seminar organised by the BBVA Foundation and the Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas (Ivie) in November 2002. All the papers presented there have been updated for this edition. This collection of papers aims to improve our understanding of the driving forces behind economic growth and productivity performance in the 1990s, and specifically the role played by ICT.