WASHINGTON — Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, said Monday that “more and better education” is crucial to combat sagging productivity in period of technological change.

Lagarde said that in “both in advanced and emerging economies, the slowdown of education attainment has lowered labor productivity growth by 0.3 percent points annually since 1990.” Lagarde was presenting a paper called, “Gone with the Headwinds: Global Productivity.”