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Embodied Technological Change, Learning-by-Doing and the Productivity Slowdown

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  • Raouf BOUCEKKINE
  • Fernando DEL RIO
  • Omar LICANDRO

Abstract

The productivity slowdown faced by the US economy since the first oil shock has been associated with a rise in the decline rate of the relative price of equipment and a reduction in the rate of disembodied technical change. We build up a growth model in which learning-by-doing is the engine of both embodied and disembodied technological progress. A change in the relative efficiency of learning-by-doing from the consumption to the investment sector is shown to imply a technological reassignment consistent with the above mentioned evidence. This result derives from the interaction between the obsolescence costs inherent to embodiment and the learning-by-doing engine.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

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  • Raouf BOUCEKKINE & Fernando DEL RIO & Omar LICANDRO, 2002. "Embodied Technological Change, Learning-by-Doing and the Productivity Slowdown," Economics Working Papers ECO2002/12, European University Institute.
    • Handle: RePEc:eui:euiwps:eco2002/12
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Romer, Paul M, 1986. "Increasing Returns and Long-run Growth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(5), pages 1002-1037, October.
    2. Edmund S. Phelps, 1962. "The New View of Investment: A Neoclassical Analysis," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 76(4), pages 548-567.
    3. Raouf Boucekkine & Fernando del Río & Omar Licandro, "undated". "The importance of the embodied question revisited," Working Papers 99-13, FEDEA.
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E22 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Investment; Capital; Intangible Capital; Capacity
    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • O40 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - General
    • C63 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Computational Techniques

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