TY  - JOUR
AU  - Comin,Diego
AU  - Hobiijn,Bart
TI  - An Exploration of Technology Diffusion
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 12314
PY  - 2006
Y2  - June 2006
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12314
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12314.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Diego A. Comin
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
Tel: 617/495-5011
E-Mail: dcomin@hbs.edu

Bart Hobijn
Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco
Economic Research Department, Mailstop 1130
101 Market Street, 11th floor
San Francisco, CA 94105
Tel: 415 974 2314
Fax: 415 974 2168
E-Mail: bart.hobijn@sf.frb.org
M2  - featured in NBER digest on 2006-06-19
AB  - We develop and estimate a model where technology diffusion depends on the level of productivity embodied in capital and where this is, in turn, determined by two key mechanisms: the rate at which the quality embodied in new technology vintages increases (embodiment) and the gains from varieties induced by the introduction of new vintages (variety). In our model, these two effects are related to technology adoption decisions taken at two different levels. The capital goods suppliers%u2019 decisions of when to adopt a given vintage determines the embodiment margin. The workers%u2019 decisions of which of the adopted vintages to use in production determines  the variety margin.
	Estimation of our model for a sample of 19 technologies, 21 countries, and the period 1870-1998 reveals that embodied productivity growth is large for many of the technologies in our sample. On average, increases in the variety of vintages available is a more important source of growth than the increases in the embodiment margin. There is, however, substantial heterogeneity across technologies. Where adoption lags matter, they are largely determined by lack of educational attainment and lack of trade openness.
ER  -