Conference Paper
The transition to a new economy after the Second Industrial Revolution
Abstract: During the Second Industrial Revolution, 1860?1900, many new technologies, including electricity, were invented. After this revolution, however, several decades passed before these new technologies diffused and measured productivity growth increased. We build a quantitative model of technology diffusion which we use to study this transition to a new economy. We show that the model implies both slow diffusion and a delay in growth similar to that in the data. Our model casts doubt, however, on the conjecture that this experience is a useful parallel for understanding the productivity paradox following the Information Technology Revolution.
Status: Published in Technological change : a workshop (2002: November 14-15)
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File(s): File format is application/pdf http://minneapolisfed.org/research/sr/sr296.pdf
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Bibliographic Information
Provider: Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco
Part of Series: Proceedings
Publication Date: 2002
Issue: Nov