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General Purpose Technologies and Surges in Productivity: Historical Reflections on the Future of the ICT Revolution

Author Info

Listed author(s):
  • Paul A. David

    ()

    (All Souls College, Oxford)

  • Gavin Wright

    ()

    (Stanford University)

Abstract

The phenomenon of recurring prolonged swings in the total factor productivity (TFP) growth rate is approached in this paper by examining a particular episode in earlier twentieth century economic history. A marked acceleration of productivity growth in U.S. manufacturing occurred after World War I, and was the main driver of the absolute and relative rise of the private domestic economy’s TFP residual. This discontinuity reflected the elaboration and adoption of a new factory regime based upon the electric dynamo, a general purpose technology (GPT) that brought significant fixed-capital savings while simultaneously raising labor productivity in a wide array of manufacturing operations. But, rather than offering a purely technological explanation of the productivity surge of the 1920s, a more complex conceptualization of the dynamics of GPT diffusion is proposed. This highlights both the generic and the differentiating aspects of U.S. industrial electrification in comparison with that of the contemporary UK. Explicit historical contextualization of the GPT concept also sheds further light on the puzzling late twentieth century productivity slowdown, and it points to some contemporary portents of a future phase of more rapid total factor productivity growth.

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File URL: http://www.economics.ox.ac.uk/materials/papers/2267/A4.pdf
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Paper provided by Economics Group, Nuffield College, University of Oxford in its series Oxford University Economic and Social History Series with number _031.

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Length: 25 pages
Date of creation: 01 Sep 1999
Handle: RePEc:nuf:esohwp:_031
Contact details of provider: Web page: https://www.nuffield.ox.ac.uk/economics/

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  22. Antonia Taddei, 1999. "London Clubs in the Late Nineteenth Century," Economics Series Working Papers 1999-W28, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
  23. David Stead, 1998. "An Arduous and Unprofitable Undertaking: The Enclosure of Stanton Harcourt, Oxfordshire," Oxford University Economic and Social History Series _026, Economics Group, Nuffield College, University of Oxford.
  24. David M. Engstrom, 1997. "The Economic Determinants of Ethnic Segregation in Post-War Britain," Economics Series Working Papers 1997-W12, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
  25. Liam Brunt, 1997. "Nature or Nurture? Explaining English Wheat Yields in the Agricultural Revolution," Economics Series Working Papers 1997-W19, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
  26. Liam Brunt, 1995. "Turning Water into Wine New Methods of Calculating Farm Output and New Insights into Rising Crop Yields during the Agricultural Revolution," Economics Series Working Papers 1995-W02, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
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