PhD candidate Maarten de Ridder has written a VoXEU column on the slowdown of productivity growth, the decline in business dynamism, and the rise of market power. He shows that these trends can be explained by the rising use of intangible inputs such as information technology and software.

The slowdown of productivity growth, the decline of business dynamism, and the rise of market power and firm concentration are three trends that have attracted a lot of attention in academic and policy debates. This column points to the rising use of intangible inputs as a unified explanation for these trends. Firms with high intangible adoption disrupt sectors and initially boost productivity, but negatively affect the entry of new firms and suppress the effect of R&D on innovation and growth in the long run.