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Technology Adoption and Productivity Growth: Evidence from Industrialization in France

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  • Réka Juhász
  • Mara P. Squicciarini
  • Nico Voigtländer

Abstract

New technologies tend to be adopted slowly and—even after being adopted—take time to be reflected in higher aggregate productivity. One prominent explanation is that major technological breakthroughs create the need to reorganize production. We study a unique setting that allows us to examine this mechanism: the adoption of mechanized cotton spinning during the first Industrial Revolution in France. Using a novel hand-collected, plant-level dataset from French archival sources, we show that a process of “trial and error” in reorganizing production led to initially low and widely dispersed productivity across firms operating the new technology. In the subsequent decades, we observe high productivity growth as knowledge diffused through the economy and new entrants adopted improved methods of organizing production.

Suggested Citation

  • Réka Juhász & Mara P. Squicciarini & Nico Voigtländer, 2024. "Technology Adoption and Productivity Growth: Evidence from Industrialization in France," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 132(10), pages 3215-3259.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:jpolec:doi:10.1086/730205
    DOI: 10.1086/730205
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    Cited by:

    1. Ahmed, Haseeb & Giffin, Erin & Manian, Shanthi, 2025. "Memory constraints in adoption of productive technologies," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 236(C).
    2. Michele Fioretti & Alessandro Iaria & Aljoscha Janssen & Cl'ement Mazet-Sonilhac & Robert K. Perrons, 2022. "Sovereign Hold-Up and Technology Adoption: Evidence from the North Sea," Papers 2205.13186, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2026.
    3. Li, Mingxing & Appiah, Michael & Baffour Gyau, Emmanuel, 2025. "The dynamics of energy generation, consumption, and pricing on industrial growth in the SSA region; exploring the moderating effect of financial development and technological advancement," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    4. Sun, Zhaoyang & Rao, Meng & Yao, Baoshuai & Ci, Huifang & Li, Zongrun & Feng, Chao, 2025. "Driving enterprise new quality productivity: The role of big data tax collection," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    5. Shaukat, Mahvish Ifrah & Stegmann, Andreas & Toma, Mattie, 2026. "How Do Organizations Learn ? The Diffusion of Scientific Evidence on Generative AI," Policy Research Working Paper Series 11305, The World Bank.
    6. Shuhui Xiang & Xinran Yin & Yuan Zi, 2025. "Two Decades of Chinese Industry Subsidies," IHEID Working Papers 18-2025, Economics Section, The Graduate Institute of International Studies.

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