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Technology Adoption Costs and Productivity Growth: The Transition to Information Technology

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  • James Bessen

    () (Research on Innovation)

Abstract

Using two panels of U.S. manufacturing industries, this paper estimates capital adjustment costs from 1961 to 1996. I find that from 1974-83 adjustment costs rose sharply --they more that doubled from about 3% of output to around 7%. Moreover, this increase is specifically associated with a shift to investment in information technology. But such large adoption costs imply that the Solow residual mismeasures productivity growth: adoption costs are resource costs representing an unmeasured investment. I find that when this investment is included, productivity grew about 0.4% per annum faster than official measures during the 70's and early 80's, reducing the size of the productivity "slowdown." Indeed, estimated productivity growth rates were roughly the same from 1974-88 as from 1949-73. Thus technology transitions critically affect productivity growth measurement. (Copyright: Elsevier)

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File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/redy.2001.0152
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Bibliographic Info

Article provided by Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics in its journal Review of Economic Dynamics.

Volume (Year): 5 (2002)
Issue (Month): 2 (April)
Pages: 443-469

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Handle: RePEc:red:issued:v:5:y:2002:i:2:p:443-469

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Related research

Keywords: Technological change; productivity; adjustment cost; information technology;

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References

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