IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fip/fedpwp/00-7.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Costly technology adoption and capital accumulation

Author

Abstract

The authors develop a model of costly technology adoption where the cost is irrecoverable and fixed. Households must decide when to switch from an existing technology to a new, more productive technology. Using a recursive approach, the authors show that there is a unique threshold level of wealth above which households will adopt the new technology and below which they will not. This threshold is independent of preference parameters and depends only on technology parameters. Prior to adoption, households invest at increasing rates, but consumption growth is constant. The authors also show that richer households adopt sooner and that income inequality increases over time. Both these results are consistent with the evidence from the Green Revolution.

Suggested Citation

  • Aubhik Khan & B. Ravikumar, 2000. "Costly technology adoption and capital accumulation," Working Papers 00-7, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
  • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedpwp:00-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.philadelphiafed.org/-/media/frbp/assets/working-papers/2000/wp00-7.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Easterly, William & King, Robert G & Levine, Ross & Rebelo, Sérgio, 1994. "Policy, Technology Adoption and Growth," CEPR Discussion Papers 957, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    2. Jovanovic, Boyan & Nyarko, Yaw, 1996. "Learning by Doing and the Choice of Technology," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 64(6), pages 1299-1310, November.
    3. Foster, Andrew D & Rosenzweig, Mark R, 1995. "Learning by Doing and Learning from Others: Human Capital and Technical Change in Agriculture," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 103(6), pages 1176-1209, December.
    4. Atkeson, Andrew, 1991. "International Lending with Moral Hazard and Risk of Repudiation," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 59(4), pages 1069-1089, July.
    5. Aubhik Khan & B. Ravikumar, 2002. "Costly Technology Adoption and Capital Accumulation," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 5(2), pages 489-502, April.
    6. Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes & Andrei Shleifer & Robert W. Vishny, 1998. "Law and Finance," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 106(6), pages 1113-1155, December.
    7. Dekimpe, M.G. & Parker, P.M. & Sarvary, M., 1997. ""Globalization": Modeling Technology Adoption Timing Across Countries," INSEAD 97/75, INSEAD, Centre for the Management of Environmental Resources. The European Institute of Business Administration..
    8. Bental, Benjamin & Peled, Dan, 1996. "The Accumulation of Wealth and the Cyclical Generation of New Technologies: A Search Theoretic Approach," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 37(3), pages 687-718, August.
    9. Francesco Caselli & Wilbur John Coleman, 2001. "Cross-Country Technology Diffusion: The Case of Computers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(2), pages 328-335, May.
    10. Gregory D. Wozniak, 1987. "Human Capital, Information, and the Early Adoption of New Technology," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 22(1), pages 101-112.
    11. Romeo M. Bautista, 1997. "Income and equity effects of the green revolution in the Philippines: a macroeconomic perspective," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 9(2), pages 151-168.
    12. Greenwood, Jeremy & Jovanovic, Boyan, 1990. "Financial Development, Growth, and the Distribution of Income," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(5), pages 1076-1107, October.
    13. Becker, Robert A, 1982. "The Equivalence of a Fisher Competitive Equilibrium and a Perfect Foresight Competitive Equilibrium in a Multi-Sectoral Model of Capital Accumulation," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 23(1), pages 19-34, February.
    14. Jeremy Greenwood, 1999. "The Third Industrial Revolution," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, issue Q II, pages 2-12.
    15. Parente, Stephen L, 1995. "A Model of Technology Adoption and Growth," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 6(3), pages 405-420, November.
    16. Chatterjee, Satyajit & Ravikumar, B., 1999. "Minimum Consumption Requirements: Theoretical And Quantitative Implications For Growth And Distribution," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 3(4), pages 482-505, December.
    17. Horowitz, Andrew W, 1993. "Optimal Patterns of Consumption and Development Expenditures in the Presence of Productivity Thresholds," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 34(1), pages 193-202, February.
    18. Parente Stephen L., 1994. "Technology Adoption, Learning-by-Doing, and Economic Growth," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 346-369, August.
    19. Jovanovic, Boyan & MacDonald, Glenn M, 1994. "Competitive Diffusion," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 102(1), pages 24-52, February.
    20. Robert A. Becker, 1981. "The Duality of a Dynamic Model of Equilibrium and an Optimal Growth Model: The Heterogeneous Capital Goods Case," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 96(2), pages 271-300.
    21. Eswaran, Mukesh & Kotwal, Ashok, 1989. "Credit as insurance in agrarian economies," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 37-53, July.
    22. Gaiha, Raghav, 1987. "Impoverishment, Technology and Growth in Rural India," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 11(1), pages 23-46, March.
    23. David, Paul A, 1990. "The Dynamo and the Computer: An Historical Perspective on the Modern Productivity Paradox," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 80(2), pages 355-361, May.
    24. Shorrocks, Anthony F, 1983. "Ranking Income Distributions," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 50(197), pages 3-17, February.
    25. Alvarez, Fernando & Stokey, Nancy L., 1998. "Dynamic Programming with Homogeneous Functions," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 82(1), pages 167-189, September.
    26. Parente, Stephen L & Prescott, Edward C, 1994. "Barriers to Technology Adoption and Development," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 102(2), pages 298-321, April.
    27. Phelan Christopher, 1995. "Repeated Moral Hazard and One-Sided Commitment," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 66(2), pages 488-506, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yi-Chan Tsai, 2010. "News Shocks and Costly Technology Adoption," 2010 Meeting Papers 567, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    2. Olivier Bruno & Cuong Van & Benoît Masquin, 2009. "When does a developing country use new technologies?," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 40(2), pages 275-300, August.
    3. Aubhik Khan & B. Ravikumar, 2002. "Costly Technology Adoption and Capital Accumulation," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 5(2), pages 489-502, April.
    4. Mateos-Planas, Xavier, 2004. "Technology adoption with finite horizons," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 28(11), pages 2129-2154, October.
    5. Lahiri, Radhika & Ding, Juhong & Chinzara, Zivanemoyo, 2018. "Technology adoption, adaptation and growth," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 469-483.
    6. Pal, Rupayan, 2010. "Technology adoption in a differentiated duopoly: Cournot versus Bertrand," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 128-136, June.
    7. Djiby Racine Thiam & Ariel Dinar & Hebert Ntuli, 2021. "Promotion of residential water conservation measures in South Africa: the role of water-saving equipment," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 23(1), pages 173-210, January.
    8. Galina Vereshchagina & Hugo A. Hopenhayn, 2009. "Risk Taking by Entrepreneurs," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(5), pages 1808-1830, December.
    9. Asif, Zainab & Chinzara, Zivanemoyo & Lahiri, Radhika, 2023. "The role of risk and institutions in the adoption and diffusion of technologies: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 16-33.
    10. Radhika Lahiri & Shyama Ratnasiri, 2007. "Concerning Technology Adoption and Inequality," School of Economics and Finance Discussion Papers and Working Papers Series 215, School of Economics and Finance, Queensland University of Technology.
    11. Giuseppe Fiori & Filippo Scoccianti, 2021. "Aggregate dynamics and microeconomic heterogeneity: the role of vintage technology," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 651, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    12. Christoph Görtz & Afrasiab Mirza, 2014. "On the Applicability of Global Approximation Methods for Models with Jump Discontinuities in Policy Functions," CESifo Working Paper Series 4837, CESifo.
    13. Maria Cunha-e-Sá & Ana Reis, 2007. "The Optimal Timing of Adoption of a Green Technology," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 36(1), pages 35-55, January.
    14. Ziv Chinzara & Radhika Lahiri, 2012. "Economic growth and inequality patterns in the presence of costly technology adoption and uncertainty," School of Economics and Finance Discussion Papers and Working Papers Series 280, School of Economics and Finance, Queensland University of Technology.
    15. Galina Vereshchagina, 2014. "Preferences for Risk in Dynamic Models with Adjustment Costs," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 17(1), pages 86-106, January.
    16. Radhika Lahiri & Shyama Ratnasiri, 2012. "Growth Patterns and Inequality in the Presence of Costly Technology Adoption," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 79(1), pages 203-223, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ferraro, Domenico, 2017. "Volatility and slow technology diffusion," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 18-37.
    2. Rodolfo E. Manuelli & Ananth Seshadri, 2014. "Frictionless Technology Diffusion: The Case of Tractors," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(4), pages 1368-1391, April.
    3. Philippe Aghion & Peter Howitt & David Mayer-Foulkes, 2005. "The Effect of Financial Development on Convergence: Theory and Evidence," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 120(1), pages 173-222.
    4. Dominik Naeher, 2022. "Technology Adoption Under Costly Information Processing," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 63(2), pages 699-753, May.
    5. Radhika Lahiri & Shyama Ratnasiri, 2012. "Growth Patterns and Inequality in the Presence of Costly Technology Adoption," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 79(1), pages 203-223, July.
    6. Mbassi, Christophe Martial & Messono, Omang Ombolo, 2023. "Historical technology and current economic development: Reassessing the nature of the relationship," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).
    7. Maurice Schiff & Yanling Wang, 2010. "North-South Technology Spillovers: The Relative Impact of Openness and Foreign R&D," International Economic Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(2), pages 197-207.
    8. Boerner, Lars & Severgnini, Battista, 2015. "Time for growth," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 64495, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    9. Li Yu & Peter F. Orazem, 2014. "O-Ring production on U.S. hog farms: joint choices of farm size, technology, and compensation," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 45(4), pages 431-442, July.
    10. Canton, Erik J. F. & de Groot, Henri L. F. & Nahuis, Richard, 2002. "Vested interests, population ageing and technology adoption," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 631-652, November.
    11. Mateos-Planas, Xavier, 2000. "Schooling and distortions in a vintage capital model," Discussion Paper Series In Economics And Econometrics 30, Economics Division, School of Social Sciences, University of Southampton.
    12. Zainab Asif & Radhika Lahiri, 2021. "Dimensions of human capital and technological diffusion," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 60(2), pages 941-967, February.
    13. Blanca MARTINEZ, 2002. "Adoption Costs, Age of Capital and Technological Substitution," LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES 2002024, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES).
    14. Claessens, Stijn & Yafeh, Yishay & Ueda, Kenichi, 2010. "Financial Frictions, Investment, and Institutions," CEPR Discussion Papers 8170, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    15. Boyan Jovanovic, 1998. "Vintage Capital and Inequality," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 1(2), pages 497-530, April.
    16. Diego Comin & Bart Hobijn, 2007. "Implementing Technology," NBER Working Papers 12886, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Jonathan Skinner & Douglas Staiger, 2007. "Technology Adoption from Hybrid Corn to Beta-Blockers," NBER Chapters, in: Hard-to-Measure Goods and Services: Essays in Honor of Zvi Griliches, pages 545-570, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Maloney, William F. & Valencia Caicedo, Felipe, 2014. "Engineers, Innovative Capacity and Development in the Americas," IZA Discussion Papers 8271, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Mateos-Planas, Xavier, 2000. "Schooling and distortions in a vintage capital model," Discussion Paper Series In Economics And Econometrics 0030, Economics Division, School of Social Sciences, University of Southampton.
    20. Mehmet Nar, 2020. "The Relationship Between Human Capital and Financial Development: A Case Study of Turkey," International Journal of Financial Research, International Journal of Financial Research, Sciedu Press, vol. 11(1), pages 157-170, January.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Technology; Wealth;

    JEL classification:

    • O1 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:fip:fedpwp:00-7. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Beth Paul (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/frbphus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.