Innovation diffusion, general purpose technologies and economic growth

Rainer Andergassen, Franco Nardini and Massimo Ricottilli

Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, 2017, vol. 40, issue C, 72-80

Abstract: This paper investigates the mechanics through which novel technological principles are developed and diffused throughout an economy consisting of a technologically heterogeneous ensemble of firms. In this model entrepreneurs invest in the discovery and in the diffusion of a technological principle. We argue that if the technological distance between goods is sufficiently large, then the economy is trapped in a no-growth equilibrium where innovations remain isolated events, while if it is sufficiently short, then innovations eventually percolate throughout the whole economy, leading to the emergence of general purpose technologies and sustained long run growth.

Keywords: Innovation; Innovation diffusion; Branching processes; General purpose technologies; Economic growth (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O31 O33 O41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:streco:v:40:y:2017:i:c:p:72-80

DOI: 10.1016/j.strueco.2016.12.003

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