Measuring our ignorance, one book at a time: New indicators of technological change, 1909-1949

Michelle Alexopoulos () and Jon Cohen

Journal of Monetary Economics, 2009, vol. 56, issue 4, pages 450-470

Abstract: New indicators of technological change in the US based on information drawn from the catalogue of the Library of Congress for the period 1909-1949 are developed and used to pinpoint the relationship, first, between technical change and economic activity, and, second, between fluctuations in innovative activity and the Great Depression. Although links between technological change, output and productivity are found, results suggest that the slowdown in technological progress in the early 1930s did not contribute significantly to the Great Depression. On the other hand, the remarkable acceleration in innovations after 1934 did play a role in the recovery.

Keywords: Technical; change; Productivity; Great; Depression (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6VBW ... 5d259cc834362a63a8e7
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
Working Paper: Measuring Our Ignorance, One Book at a Time: New Indicators of Technological Change, 1909-1949 (2009)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:moneco:v:56:y:2009:i:4:p:450-470

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Monetary Economics is edited by R. G. King and C. I. Plosser

More articles in Journal of Monetary Economics from Elsevier
Series data maintained by Heidi Boesdal ().