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Vintage organization capital

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  • Boyan Jovanovic
  • Peter L. Rousseau

Abstract

We argue that a firm's organization capital depends on the state of technology when the firm was born and on the technologies that have followed. We estimate vintage effects on the value of firms from 114 years of stock market data. We find: 1) a surprisingly strong upward trend in the stock-market share of the largest firms, 2) a very large quantity of organization capital created by the 1920's vintage, 3) strong indications that the 1970's and 1980's vintages will be followed by more complementary technologies, and 4) major technological change since WW2 in the process by which organization capital is created.

Suggested Citation

  • Boyan Jovanovic & Peter L. Rousseau, 2000. "Vintage organization capital," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, issue Apr.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedfpr:y:2000:i:apr:x:5
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Corporations; Technology;

    JEL classification:

    • O3 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights
    • N2 - Economic History - - Financial Markets and Institutions

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