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General Purpose Technologies

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Author Info
Boyan Jovanovic
Peter L. Rousseau

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Abstract

Electricity and Information Technology (IT) are perhaps the two most important general purpose technologies (GPTs) to date. We analyze how the U.S. economy reacted to them. The Electricity and IT eras are similar, but also differ in several important ways. Electrification was more broadly adopted, whereas IT seems to be technologically more "revolutionary." The productivity slowdown is stronger in the IT era but the ongoing spread of IT and its continuing precipitous price decline are reasons for optimism about growth in the 21st century.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 11093.

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Date of creation: Jan 2005
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:11093

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O3 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Technological Change
N2 - Economic History - - Financial Markets and Institutions

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Full references

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.)

  1. Philippon, Thomas & Reshef, Ariell, 2009. "Wages and Human Capital in the U.S. Financial Industry: 1909-2006," CEPR Discussion Papers 7282, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. David Andolfatto & Glenn MacDonald, 2004. "Jobless Recoveries," Macroeconomics 0412014, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
  3. Klaus Desmet & Esteban Rossi-Hansberg, 2007. "Spatial Growth and Industry Age," NBER Working Papers 13302, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  4. Tomi Kyyrä & Mika Maliranta, 2006. "The Micro-Level Dynamics of Declining Labour Share: Lessons from the Finnish Great Leap," Discussion Papers 406, Government Institute for Economic Research Finland (VATT). [Downloadable!]
  5. Jan Youtie & Maurizio Iacopetta & Stuart Graham, 2008. "Assessing the nature of nanotechnology: can we uncover an emerging general purpose technology?," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 33(3), pages 315-329, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Ruttan, Vernon W., 2008. "General Purpose Technology, Revolutionary Technology, and Technological Maturity," Staff Papers 6206, University of Minnesota, Department of Applied Economics. [Downloadable!]
  7. Geng Li, 2006. "Learning by investing--embodied technology and business cycles," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2007-15, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.). [Downloadable!]
  8. Jorge Soares, 2009. "Welfare Impact of a Ban on Child Labor," Working Papers 09-01., University of Delaware, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  9. Thomas Philippon & Ariell Reshef, 2009. "Wages and Human Capital in the U.S. Financial Industry: 1909-2006," NBER Working Papers 14644, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Boyan Jovanovic, 2007. "Investment Options and the Business Cycle," NBER Working Papers 13307, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  11. Schiffbauer, Marc, 2008. "Catching Up or Falling Behind? The Effect of Infrastructure Capital on Technology Adoption in Transition Economies," Papers DYNREG27, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI). [Downloadable!]
  12. Pástor, Luboš & Veronesi, Pietro, 2005. "Technological Revolutions and Stock Prices," CEPR Discussion Papers 5428, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  13. Richard Dion & Robert Fay, 2008. "Understanding Productivity: A Review of Recent Technical Research," Discussion Papers 08-3, Bank of Canada. [Downloadable!]
  14. Henrekson, Magnus & Edquist, Harald, 2006. "Technological Breakthroughs and Productivity Growth," Working Paper Series 665, Research Institute of Industrial Economics. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  15. Edquist, Harald, 2005. "Do hedonic price indexes change history? The case of electrification," Working Paper Series in Economics and Finance 586, Stockholm School of Economics, revised 28 Feb 2005. [Downloadable!]
  16. Hyunbae Chun & Jung-Wook Kim & Jason Lee & Randall Morck, 2004. "Patterns of Comovement: The Role of Information Technology in the U.S. Economy," NBER Working Papers 10937, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  17. Peter Thompson & Mihaela Pintea, 2007. "Sorting, Selection, and Industry Shakeouts," Working Papers 0702, Florida International University, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  18. Tomi Kyyrä & mika Maliranta, 2006. "The Micro-level Dynamics of Declining Labour Share: Lessons from Finnish Great Leap," Discussion Papers 1049, The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy. [Downloadable!]
  19. Shih-tse Lo & Dhanoos Sutthiphisal, 2008. "Crossover Inventions And Knowledge Diffusion Of General Purpose Technologies? Evidence From The Electrical Technology," NBER Working Papers 14043, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  20. IKEDA Nobuo, 2003. "The Unbundling of Network Elements: Japan's Experience," Discussion papers 03023, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI). [Downloadable!]
  21. Ludwig, Volker & Pfeiffer, Friedhelm, 2005. "Abschreibungsraten allgemeiner und beruflicher Ausbildungsinhalte," ZEW Discussion Papers 05-36, ZEW - Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung / Center for European Economic Research. [Downloadable!]
  22. Ryo Horii, 2006. "Wants and Past Knowledge: Growth Cycles with Emerging Industries," Discussion Papers in Economics and Business 06-03, Osaka University, Graduate School of Economics and Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  23. Lone E. Christiansen, 2008. "Do Technology Shocks Lead to Productivity Slowdowns? Evidence from Patent Data," IMF Working Papers 08/24, International Monetary Fund. [Downloadable!]
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