Rethinking productivity growth

Berkeley, United States

TODAY, the world's population is, on average, about 20 times richer than it was during the long Agrarian Age. Between 7000 BC and 1500 AD, resources were scarce, technological progress was slow and Malthusian pressures kept almost all human populations at a near-subsistence level, with per capita daily income of less than US$1.50 in today's terms.

In 2017, only around 7 …