IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hhs/lucirc/2007_006.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

In Defense of Electricity as a General Purpose Technology

Author

Listed:

Abstract

Electricity has been regarded as a typical example of a general purpose technology and important for the surge both in energy productivity and overall productivity in the American economy in the 1920s. This view was challenged by Nicholas and Moser (2004) based on patent statistics. We argue that other methods are required for studying productivity effects and propose cointegration analyses. Wedemonstrate a clear impact from electrification on energy productivity in those broad Swedish industrial branches that used electricity for multiple uses. This effect goes beyond mere book-keeping effects and indicates the existence of dynamic effects.

Suggested Citation

  • Kander, Astrid & Enflo, Kerstin & Schön, Lennart, 2007. "In Defense of Electricity as a General Purpose Technology," Papers in Innovation Studies 2007/6, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
  • Handle: RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2007_006
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://wp.circle.lu.se/upload/CIRCLE/workingpapers/200706_Kander_et_al.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Madureira , Ana Mafalda, 2013. "Physical Planning in Entrepreneurial Urban Governance – Experiences from the Bo01 and Brunnshög Projects, Sweden," Papers in Innovation Studies 2013/25, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    2. Chaminade, Cristina & de Fuentes, Claudia, 2012. "Competences as drivers and enablers of globalization of innovation: Swedish ICT industry and emerging economies," Papers in Innovation Studies 2012/6, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    3. Chaminade, Cristina, 2012. "Exploring the role of regional innovation systems and institutions in global innovation networks," Papers in Innovation Studies 2011/15, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    4. Roman Martin, 2012. "Measuring Knowledge Bases in Swedish Regions," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(9), pages 1569-1582, September.
    5. Antonin Bergeaud & Gilbert Cette & Rémy Lecat, 2018. "The role of production factor quality and technology diffusion in twentieth-century productivity growth," Cliometrica, Journal of Historical Economics and Econometric History, Association Française de Cliométrie (AFC), vol. 12(1), pages 61-97, January.
    6. Borrás, Susana & Edquist, Charles, 2013. "The choice of innovation policy instruments," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 80(8), pages 1513-1522.
    7. Nilsson, Magnus & Moodysson, Jerker, 2011. "Policy coordination in systems of innovation: A structural-functional analysis of regional industry support in Sweden," Papers in Innovation Studies 2011/9, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    8. Andersson, Martin & Klaesson, Johan & P. Larsson, Johan, 2012. "How Local are Spatial Density Externalities? evidence from square grid data," Papers in Innovation Studies 2012/10, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    9. Chaminade, Cristina & Plechero, Monica, 2012. "Do regions make a difference? Exploring the role of different regional innovation systems in global innovation networks in the ICT industry," Papers in Innovation Studies 2012/2, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    10. Martin , Roman & Trippl , Michaela, 2013. "System Failures, Knowledge Bases and Regional Innovation Policies," Papers in Innovation Studies 2013/13, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    11. Avdeitchikova , Sofia & Coenen, Lars, 2013. "Commercializing clean technology innovations – the emergence of new business in an agency-structure perspective," Papers in Innovation Studies 2013/6, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    12. Martin Andersson, 2015. "Start-up rates, entrepreneurship culture and the business cycle: Swedish patterns from national and regional data," Chapters, in: Charlie Karlsson & Urban Gråsjö & Sofia Wixe (ed.), Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the Global Economy, chapter 7, pages 162-183, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    13. Edquist , Charles & Zabala-Iturriagagoitia , Jon Mikel, 2012. "Why Pre-Commercial Procurement is notInnovation Procurement," Papers in Innovation Studies 2012/11, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    14. Rekers, Josephine V., 2012. "Considering adoption: Towards a consumption-oriented approach to innovation," Papers in Innovation Studies 2011/14, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    15. Edquist, Charles, 2011. "Innovation Policy Design: Identification of Systemic Problems," Papers in Innovation Studies 2011/6, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    16. Brandt, Tasso & Schubert, Torben, 2012. "Is the University Model an Organizational Necessity? Scale and Agglomeration Effects in Science," Papers in Innovation Studies 2012/1, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    17. Cristina Castelli & Davide Castellani, 2013. "The internationalisation of r&d: sectoral and geographic patterns of cross-border investments," ECONOMIA E POLITICA INDUSTRIALE, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2013(1), pages 127-143.
    18. J. Herstad , Sverre & Ebersberger , Bernd & Asheim, Bjørn, 2013. "MNC affiliation, knowledge bases and involvement in global innovation networks," Papers in Innovation Studies 2013/12, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    19. Borrás , Susana & Edquist , Charles, 2013. "Competence Building: A Systemic Approach to Innovation Policy," Papers in Innovation Studies 2013/28, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    20. Schubert, Torben & Neuhaeusler, Peter, 2012. "Towards a Richer Specification of the Exploration/Exploitation Trade-off: Hidden Knowledge-based Aspects and Empirical Results for a Set of Large R&D-Performing Firms," Papers in Innovation Studies 2012/8, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    21. Coenen , Lars & Moodysson , Jerker & Martin , Hanna, 2013. "Renewal of mature industry in an old industrial region: regional innovation policy and the co-evolution of institutions and technology," Papers in Innovation Studies 2013/7, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    electricity; GPT; productivity; cointegration; dynamic effects;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O30 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - General

    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:hhs:lucirc:2007_006. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Torben Schubert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/circlse.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.