2017 - 18 Year in Review

13 Productivity Growth Is Slower Than You Think. Should You Be Worried? Despite the rapid spread and high utilization of new technologies like smartphones, search engines, and social networking sites, the US and other major economies around the world have been experiencing slow measured productivity growth for more than a decade. Some have proposed that this reflects a measurement problem—that standard economic statistics are not up to the task of measuring the impact of these transformative technologies. Professor Chad Syverson showed that, in several different ways, the data do not support this ‘mismeasurement hypothesis.’ The productivity growth slowdown is real and costly. Syverson explored prospects for future productivity growth and asked whether current nascent technologies might break the world out of its slow-growth slump. Myron Scholes Global Markets Forum DISTINGUISHED SPEAKERS, 2017–18 OCTOBER 30, 2017 CHAD SYVERSON Eli B. and Harriet B. Williams Professor of Economics, Chicago Booth NOVEMBER 27, 2017 GILLIAN TETT US Managing Editor and Award- Winning Columnist, Financial Times Dazed and Confused: Making Sense of Western Politics (and Consumers) Gillian Tett gave her perspective on the state of politics and how we can make sense of what has been happening in Western democracies.