This paper develops and analyzes a macroeconomic model in which aggregate growth and fluctuations arise from the discovery and diffusion of new technologies; there are no exogenous aggregate shocks. The temporal behavior of aggregates is driven by individuals' efforts to innovate and/or make use of others' innovations. Parameters describing preferences, production possibilities and learning technologies are estimated using post-war U.S. data. The model delivers predicted aggregates that grow and fluctuate much like the data. The key features of post-war growth are explained by new technologies that differ in terms of the magnitude of their improvement over existing methods and the difficulty of acquiring them. The model implies a negative trend in technological dispersion, and that the generally lower growth witnessed during the last two decades is the result of new technologies offering comparatively minor or less broadly-applicable improvements. Data on the growing and fluctuating share of engineering Ph.D.s support the model's technological interpretation of the growth facts, and data on patent applications and adult schooling are consistent with the notion that newer technologies are more specific and proprietary.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
Publisher Info
Paper provided by University of Waterloo, Department of Economics in its series Working Papers with number
98005.
References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
Jovanovic, B. & Macdonald, G.M., 1988.
"Competitive Diffusion,"
RCER Working Papers
160, University of Rochester - Center for Economic Research (RCER).
Other versions:
Jovanovic, Boyan & MacDonald, Glenn M., 1988.
"Competitive Diffusion,"
Working Papers
88-29, C.V. Starr Center for Applied Economics, New York University.
[Downloadable!]
Boyan Jovanovic & Glenn MacDonald, 1994.
"Competitive Diffusion,"
NBER Working Papers
4463, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
[Downloadable!] (restricted)
Jovanovic, B. & MacDonald, G.M., 1991.
"Competitive Diffusion,"
Papers
92-08, Rochester, Business - Financial Research and Policy Studies.
Jovanovic, Boyan & Lach, Saul, 1997.
"Product Innovation and the Business Cycle,"
International Economic Review,
Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 38(1), pages 3-22, February.
Other versions:
Cited by: (explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.) This item has more than 25 citations. To prevent cluttering this page, these citations are listed on a separate page.