General Purpose Technologies

Timothy Bresnahan ()

Chapter Chapter 18 in Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, 2010, vol. 2, pp 761-791 from Elsevier

Abstract: This chapter selectively surveys the literature on general purpose technologies (GPTs), focusing on incentives and aggregate growth implications. The literature on classical GPTs (steam, electricity, computers) and on classical great economic transformations (industrial revolutions, the information age) are linked to the theoretical and empirical literatures. The implications of GPT analysis for understanding the history of productivity growth in the late twentieth century are taken up on the concluding remarks.

Keywords: general purpose technology; innovation; technical change; L0; L1; O3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (70)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:haechp:v2_761

DOI: 10.1016/S0169-7218(10)02002-2

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