Final answer:
The new economy is characterized by technological advancements leading to increased productivity. A debate exists on whether the productivity growth observed in the late 1990s will be sustainable long-term, especially after a slowdown following the 2008-2009 recession.
Step-by-step explanation:
The new economy is often reflected by increases in productivity attributed to advancements in technology, particularly in communications and information technology. The late 1990s saw a significant debate among economists concerning the sustainability of productivity growth credited to these technological advances. Optimists in this debate anticipated that the new economy would lead to sustained higher productivity growth, while pessimists cautioned that such trends might not endure in the long term.
This skepticism stems partly from the difficulty of predicting long-term trends due to economic disruptions like the 2008-2009 recession, where declines in output and employment resulted in a more complicated analysis of productivity and economic health. Even after a brief spike in productivity growth post-recession, there has since been a noticeable slowdown, bringing into question whether the earlier productivity uptick was indicative of a true structural change or merely a short-term fluctuation.