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Steam as a general purpose technology: A growth accounting perspective

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Nicholas Crafts

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Abstract

The contribution of steam to British economic growth in the nineteenth century is estimated using growth accounting methods similar to those recently employed to examine the role of ICT. The results indicate that steam contributed little to growth before 1830 and had its peak impact about a hundred years after Watt's famous invention. Only with the advent of high-pressure steam after 1850 did the technology realise its potential. Compared with ICT, steam's impact on the annual rate of growth was modest. It is unlikely that these conclusions are vulnerable to quantification of hitherto unmeasured TFP spillovers. Copyright 2004 Royal Economic Society.

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Article provided by Royal Economic Society in its journal The Economic Journal.

Volume (Year): 114 (2004)
Issue (Month): 495 (04)
Pages: 338-351
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Handle: RePEc:ecj:econjl:v:114:y:2004:i:495:p:338-351

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  5. Jeremy Atack & Fred Bateman & Robert Margo, 2006. "Steam Power, Establishment Size, and Labor Productivity Growth in Nineteenth Century American Manufacturing," NBER Working Papers 11931, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  10. Nico Voigtländer & Hans-Joachim Voth, 2006. "Why England? Demographic factors, structural change and physical capital accumulation during the Industrial Revolution," DEGIT Conference Papers c011_003, DEGIT, Dynamics, Economic Growth, and International Trade. [Downloadable!]
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  11. Edquist, Harald, 2008. "Does Hedonic Price Indexing Change Our Interpretation of Economic History? Evidence from Swedish Electrification," Working Paper Series 742, Research Institute of Industrial Economics, revised 03 Sep 2009. [Downloadable!]
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  13. Nuvolari, A. & Verspagen, B., 2005. "'Unravelling the Duty': Lean’s Engine Reporter and Cornish Steam Engineering," ECIS Working Papers 05.14, Eindhoven Centre for Innovation Studies, Eindhoven University of Technology. [Downloadable!]
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  15. Carolina Castaldi & Alessandro Nuvolari, 2004. "Technological Revolutions and Economic Growth: The “Age of Steam” Reconsidered," LEM Papers Series 2004/11, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy. [Downloadable!]
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  16. Daniel Schiess & Roger Wehrli, 2008. "The Calm Before the Storm? - Anticipating the Arrival of General Purpose Technologies," Economics working paper series 08/81, CER-ETH - Center of Economic Research (CER-ETH) at ETH Zurich. [Downloadable!]
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