Few technologies have spread as quickly, or become so widely used, as computers and the Internet. These information technologies are rapidly becoming common fixtures of modern social and economic life, opening opportunities and new avenues for many Americans. A Nation Online: How Americans Are Expanding Their Use of the Internet shows the rapidly growing use of new information technologies across...

Robust investment in information technology (IT) played a major role in the acceleration of output and productivity growth from 1996 to 2000. Until now, however, very little was known about the extent to which small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) were taking part in the digital economy. This report examines new evidence of how small and medium-sized businesses are faring in the new economy –...

The U.S. economic expansion is now in its tenth year, showing no signs of slowing down. The rate of labor productivity growth has doubled in recent years, instead of falling as the expansion matured as in previous postwar expansions. Moreover, core inflation remains low despite record employment and the lowest jobless rates in a generation. Our sustained economic strength with low inflation...

As a result of programming decisions made during their creation, computer software and hardware may not recognize the Year 2000 accurately, causing operational errors. This report assesses the economic implications of this Y2K problem for the U.S. economy. The Department of Commerce’s Economics and Statistics Administration reviewed how firms and governments should be expected to react in the face...

Electronic commerce (business transactions on the Web) and the information technology (IT) industries that make “e-commerce” possible are growing and changing at breathtaking speed, fundamentally altering the way Americans produce, consume, communicate and play.

This report, from the 1997 Economic Census, is one of a series of four Core Business Statistics Series of reports, each of which provides statistics for individual industries and/or states. The first report, the Advance report, presents advance data at the two- and three-digit North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) levels and at the division and two-digit Standard Industrial...

During the past few years, the United States economy has performed beyond most expectations. A shrinking budget deficit, low-interest rates, a stable macroeconomic environment, expanding international trade with fewer barriers and effective private-sector management are all credited with playing a role in this healthy economic performance.

Commercial bank investment in information technology (IT) equipment has grown rapidly, from $104 million in 1960 to more than $10 billion in 1994. These investments in “hard” technologies (computer hardware, software, telecommunications equipment, etc.) have been accompanied by increases in "soft" technologies, for example, complex financial innovations that were infeasible on a large scale...