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Measuring Our Ignorance, One Book at a Time: New Indicators of Technological Change, 1909-1949

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  • Michelle Alexopoulos
  • Jon Cohen

Abstract

We present new indicators of U.S. technological change for the period 1909-49 based on information in the Library of Congress’ catalogue. We use these indicators to estimate the connections between technological change and economic activity, and to investigate the relationship between fluctuations in innovative activity and the Great Depression. Although we do find links between technological change, output and productivity, our results suggest that the slowdown in technological progress in the early 1930s did not contribute significantly to the Great Depression. On the other hand, the remarkable acceleration in innovations after 1934 did play a role in the recovery.

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  • Michelle Alexopoulos & Jon Cohen, 2009. "Measuring Our Ignorance, One Book at a Time: New Indicators of Technological Change, 1909-1949," Working Papers tecipa-349, University of Toronto, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:tor:tecipa:tecipa-349
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Miles S. Kimball & John G. Fernald & Susanto Basu, 2006. "Are Technology Improvements Contractionary?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(5), pages 1418-1448, December.
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    1. Remember: Sticky-Wage Keynesianism is a Supply Side Theory, by Garett Jones
      by ? in Econlog on 2013-03-17 15:00:52

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    Cited by:

    1. Michelle Alexopoulos and Jon Cohen, 2018. "Canadian Productivity Growth, Secular Stagnation, and Technological Change," International Productivity Monitor, Centre for the Study of Living Standards, vol. 35, pages 113-137, Fall.
    2. Michelle Alexopoulos & Jon Cohen, 2012. "The Effects of Computer Technologies on the Canadian Economy: Evidence from New Direct Measures," International Productivity Monitor, Centre for the Study of Living Standards, vol. 23, pages 17-32, Spring.
    3. Cette, Gilbert & Fernald, John & Mojon, Benoît, 2016. "The pre-Great Recession slowdown in productivity," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 3-20.
    4. Tsai, I-Chun, 2017. "The source of global stock market risk: A viewpoint of economic policy uncertainty," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 122-131.
    5. Samira Hasanzadeh, 2017. "Dissemination of Two Faces of Knowledge: Do Liberal-Democracy and Income-Level Matter?," Carleton Economic Papers 17-09, Carleton University, Department of Economics.
    6. Tao Wu & Michele Cavallo, 2012. "Measuring Oil-Price Shocks Using Market-Based Information," IMF Working Papers 12/19, International Monetary Fund.
    7. Ramey, Valerie A., 2020. "Secular stagnation or technological lull?," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 42(4), pages 767-777.
    8. John G. Fernald, 2015. "Productivity and Potential Output before, during, and after the Great Recession," NBER Macroeconomics Annual, University of Chicago Press, vol. 29(1), pages 1-51.
    9. Hashmat Khan & John Tsoukalas, 2011. "Effects of Productivity Shocks on Employment: UK Evidence (revised 25 February 2013)," Carleton Economic Papers 11-05, Carleton University, Department of Economics, revised 25 Feb 2013.
    10. Alexopoulos, Michelle & Tombe, Trevor, 2012. "Management matters," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(3), pages 269-285.
    11. Cascaldi-Garcia, Danilo & Vukotic, Marija, 2019. "Patent-Based News Shocks," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1225, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    12. Ling Sun, 2018. "Delayed Output Response to Productivity Shocks in a Monetary Search Model," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 46(3), pages 251-266, September.
    13. Madsen, Jakob & Strulik, Holger, 2020. "Technological change and inequality in the very long run," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    14. Richard B. Freeman & Alice O. Nakamura & Leonard I. Nakamura & Marc Prud’homme & Amanda Pyman, 2011. "Wal‐Mart innovation and productivity: a viewpoint," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 44(2), pages 486-508, May.
    15. John G. Fernald, 2016. "Reassessing Longer-Run U.S. Growth: How Low?," Working Paper Series 2016-18, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Technical Change; Productivity; the Great Depression;

    JEL classification:

    • E3 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles
    • O3 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights
    • O4 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity
    • N1 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations

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