This paper formulates Rosenberg's (1982) "learning by using" as a stochastic process. The producer of machines learns from the experience of users. Due to this learning, the quality of machines improves over time. It turns out that the process of this improvement approximately takes an exponential form. This improvement process, combined with the growth of demand due to the improvement, can produce an S-shape diffusion curve of machines. Strong demand and advancement of communication technology increase the diffusion speed. The distributional property of the stochastic process and the implications for inequality across machine users are also explored.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
file. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
Publisher Info
Paper provided by Concordia University, Department of Economics in its series Working Papers with number
05003.
Find related papers by JEL classification: O31 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Technological Change - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives O33 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Technological Change - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
Cited by: (explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)
Greenwood, Jeremy & Guner, Nezih, 2008.
"Social Change,"
IZA Discussion Papers
3485, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
[Downloadable!]
Other versions: