The theoretical literature on technological changes distinguishes between paradigmatic changes and changes in trajectories. Recently several scholars have performed empirical studies on the way technological trajectories evolve in specific industries, often by predominantly looking at the artifacts. Much less if any empirical work has been done on paradigmatic changes, even though these have a ...

The paper investigates to what extent the convergence of banks over risk-adjusted capital standards set by the new Basel Capital Accord may affect the way in which they screen innovative firms. It also gives an overview of the existing forms of credit support to R&D activities. The study is built upon a survey conducted in January and February 2006 on 12 main Italian banking groups. The survey ...

This study examines the determinants of information and communications technology (ICT) use and access of low-income people in three developing countries: Colombia, Mexico and Peru. We focus on cross-country differences and similarities in ICTs use across gender, age, education and income, using two composite indicators of ICT. The main similarity across the countries is that education is by fa...

In this paper we show that firms’ market power and flexibility in the utilization of capital crucially affect how investment-specific technology (IST) shocks impact asset prices. We develop a two-sector general equilibrium model in which households have recursive preferences and obtain three main results. First, the equilibrium price of risk for IST shocks changes sign from negative, under fixe...

Adoption of new technology requires diversion of human and physical resources from direct production activities to learning/adjusting activities, which could reduce productivity temporarily. Focusing on the existence of such “learning cost”, we derive a simple model on the optimal timing for technology upgrading. This model suggests that, other things being equal, a firm perceived to have bette...

Article history: Received 12 October 2012 Received in revised form 24 April 2013 Accepted 20 August 2013 Available online xxxx Industrial competitiveness (IC) is a country's ability to produce and export manufactured goods competitively. Howdoes foreign direct investment (FDI) affect IC in China? The significance of the topic, besides the intrinsic importance of IC, is heightened by outstanding...

This paper introduces endogenous and directed technical change in a growth model with environmental constraints. A unique final good is produced by combining inputs from two sectors. One of these sectors uses “dirty” machines and thus creates environmental degradation. Research can be directed to improving the technology of machines in either sector. We characterize dynamic tax policies that ac...

This paper investigates the relative labor productivity level for total manufacturing in Germany, Sweden and the US for the period 1980–2001. The paper also presents estimates of labor productivity levels for 18 different manufacturing industries for the period 1993–2000. The results show that the Swedish manufacturing productivity caught up with German and US productivity in the 1990s, overtak...

This paper provides a quantitative theory for the recent rise in residual wage inequality consistent with the empirical observation that a sizeable part of this increase has a transitory nature, a feature that eludes standard models based on ex-ante heterogeneity in ability. An acceleration in the rate of quality-improvement of equipment, like the one observed from the early 70's, increases the...

This paper revisits the induced innovation literature of the 1960s to which Phelps was a major contributor (Drandakis and Phelps, 1965). This literature was the first systematic study of the determinants of technical change and also the first investigation of the relationship between factor prices and technical change. I present a modern reformulation of this literature based on the tools devel...