TY  - JOUR
AU  - Jovanovic,Boyan
AU  - Rousseau,Peter L.
TI  - General Purpose Technologies
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 11093
PY  - 2005
Y2  - January 2005
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w11093
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w11093.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Boyan Jovanovic
New York University
Department of Economics
19 W. 4th Street, 6th Floor
New York, NY  10012
Tel: 212/998-8953
Fax: 212/995-4186
E-Mail: Boyan.Jovanovic@nyu.edu

Peter L. Rousseau
Department of Economics
Vanderbilt University
VU Station B #351819
2301 Vanderbilt Place
Nashville, TN 37235-1819
Tel: 615/343-2466
E-Mail: peter.l.rousseau@vanderbilt.edu
AB  - Electricity and Information Technology (IT) are perhaps the two most important general purpose technologies (GPTs) to date. We analyze how the U.S. economy reacted to them. The Electricity and IT eras are similar, but also differ in several important ways. Electrification was more broadly adopted, whereas IT seems to be technologically more "revolutionary." The productivity slowdown is stronger in the IT era but the ongoing spread of IT and its continuing precipitous price decline are reasons for optimism about growth in the 21st century.
ER  -