In particular, they help explain why, despite the new digital revolution, the dynamics of aggregate productivity have been so sluggish. To be fully exploited, the new digital technologies require adequate availability and composition of skills in the workforce, good managerial practices and, often, appropriate economies of scale.
These factors are creating a divide between a few fast growing large firms and many small ones struggling to keep up, which is preventing our economies from taking full advantage from technological progress. These are critical issues, whose relevance can hardly be overstated.