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The Importance of the Embodied Question Revisited

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  • Boucekkine, Raouf

    (UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES))

  • del Rio, Fernando

    (CEPREMAP, France)

  • Licandro, Omar

    (FEDEA, Spain)

Abstract

In order to assess the importance of embodiment, we build up an endogenous growth model in which learning by doing is the engine of both embodied and disembodied technological progress. In sharp contrast to Phelps (1962), we show that a change in the composition of technical change affects the growth rate in the long run. We also provide an alternative explanation for the productivity slowdown: an increase in the fraction of embodied technical progress, through an improvement in the learning efficiency of the capital goods sector, permanently lowers the growth rate of technological progress, by increasing the obsolescence costs of investment. The productivity slowdown occurs together with a rise in the rate of decline of investment goods prices. Finally, we show that an increase in the embodied fraction of technical change reduces the gap between the optimal and the decentralized growth rates.

Suggested Citation

  • Boucekkine, Raouf & del Rio, Fernando & Licandro, Omar, 1999. "The Importance of the Embodied Question Revisited," LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES 1999026, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES).
    • Handle: RePEc:ctl:louvir:1999026
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    Cited by:

    1. Raouf Boucekkine & Fernando Del Río & Omar Licandro, 2003. "Embodied Technological Change, Learning‐by‐doing and the Productivity Slowdown," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 105(1), pages 87-98, March.
    2. Raouf Boucekkine & David de la Croix & Yiannis Vailakis, 2002. "Technological Shocks and IT Revolutions," Recherches économiques de Louvain, De Boeck Université, vol. 68(1), pages 75-89.
    3. Raouf Boucekkine & Fernando del Río & Omar Licandro, "undated". "Obsolescence Vs modernization in a Schumpeterian vintage capital model," Working Papers 2000-27, FEDEA.
    4. Ana Goicolea & Omar Licandro & Reyes Maroto, 2001. "Picos de inversión y productividad del trabajo en los establecimientos industriales madrileños," Investigaciones Economicas, Fundación SEPI, vol. 25(2), pages 255-288, May.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Embodied technical progress; Obsolescence; Learning by doing; Productivity slowdown; Optimal growth;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E22 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Investment; Capital; Intangible Capital; Capacity
    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • O40 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - General

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