Information and Communications Technology as a General-Purpose Technology: Evidence from US Industry Data

Nanotechnology as general purpose technology

Scientific literature postulates that nanotechnology is to be considered as general purpose technology (GPT), characterized by pervasiveness, high technological dynamism and the inducement of innovations within a variety of applications. We set out to not only further systematize existing approaches investigating nanotechnology’s GPT traits based on patent applications, but to extend the analys...

Nanotechnology as general-purpose technology: empirical evidence and implications

Developments in nanotechnology are poised to have a pervasive effect on various industries for years to come and nanotechnology management research is beginning to appear in peerreviewed management journals. Much of the research on this early, emergent technology is focused on issues of definition and identification of technology type. In this study, we searched the US Patents and Trademarks Of...

General Purpose Optimization Technology

Was Electricity a General Purpose Technology

General Purpose Technologies (GPTs) are credited with generating the increasing returns that drive endogenous growth. For example, Paul David (1991) explains the surge in U.S. productivity during the 1920s as a delayed response to the introduction of the electric dynamo in the 1880s. To the extent that GPTs yield large positive externalities on a wide range of industries some time after they ar...

General Purpose Technology and Wage Inequality

The recent changes in the U.S. wage structure are often linked to the new wave of capital-embodied information technologies. The existing literature has emphasized either the accelerated pace or the skill-bias of embodied technical progress as the driving force behind the rise in wage inequality. A key, neglected, aspect is the \general purpose" nature of the new information technologies. This ...