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The scale of production in technological revolutions

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  • Matthew F. Mitchell

Abstract

Many manufacturing industries, including the computer industry, have seen large increases in productivity growth rates and have experienced a reduction in average establishment size and a decrease in the variance of the sizes of plants. A vintage capital model is introduced where learning increases productivity on any given technology and firms choose when to adopt a new vintage. In the model, a rise in the rate of technological change leads to a decrease in both the mean and variance of the size distribution.

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  • Matthew F. Mitchell, 2000. "The scale of production in technological revolutions," Staff Report 269, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedmsr:269
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    Cited by:

    1. Matthew Mitchell, 2002. "Technological Change and the Scale of Production," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 5(2), pages 477-488, April.
    2. Roberto M Samaniego, 2006. "A Theory of Entry and Exit with Embodied Rate of Technical Change," 2006 Meeting Papers 765, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    3. Phillip Fanchon, 2003. "Variable selection for dynamic measures of efficiency in the computer industry," International Advances in Economic Research, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 9(3), pages 175-188, August.

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