Frictionless technology diffusion: the case of tractors

Rodolfo Manuelli and Ananth Seshadri

Proceedings, 2003, issue Nov

Abstract: Empirical evidence suggests that there is a long lag between the time a new technology is introduced and the time at which it is widely adopted. The conventional wisdom is that these observations are inconsistent with the predictions of the frictionless neoclassical model. In this paper we show this to be incorrect. Once the appropriate driving forces are taken into account, the neoclassical model can account for 'slow' adoption. We illustrate this by developing an industry model to study the equilibrium rate of diffusion of tractors in the U.S. between 1910 and 1960.

Keywords: Technology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2003
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (23)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.frbsf.org/wp-content/uploads/manuelli2003.pdf Full Text (text/html)

Related works:
Journal Article: Frictionless Technology Diffusion: The Case of Tractors (2014)
Working Paper: Frictionless technology diffusion: the case of tractors (2013)
Working Paper: Frictionless Technology Diffusion: The Case of Tractors (2003)
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: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fip:fedfpr:y:2003:i:nov:x:6

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Proceedings from Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Research Library ().