In Defense of Electricity as a General Purpose Technology
Author
Summary, in English
Electricity has been regarded as a typical example of a general purpose technology and important for the surge both in energy productivity and overall productivity in the American economy in the 1920s. This view was challenged by Nicholas and Moser (2004) based on patent statistics. We argue that other methods are required for studying productivity effects and propose cointegration analyses. We demonstrate a clear impact from electrification on energy productivity in those broad Swedish industrial branches that used electricity for multiple uses. This effect goes beyond mere book-keeping effects and indicates the existence of dynamic effects.
Department/s
Publishing year
2007
Language
English
Publication/Series
CIRCLE Electronic Working Paper Series
Volume
2007/06
Full text
- Available as PDF - 339 kB
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Links
Document type
Working paper
Publisher
Center for Innovation Research and Competence in the Learning Economy (utgivare)
Topic
- Economic History
- Social Sciences Interdisciplinary
Keywords
- electricity
- GPT
- productivity
- cointegration
- dynamic effects
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 1654-3149