TY  - JOUR
AU  - Greenwood,Jeremy
AU  - Kopecky,Karen A.
TI  - Measuring the Welfare Gain from Personal Computers: A Macroeconomic Approach
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 13592
PY  - 2007
Y2  - November 2007
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w13592
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w13592.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Jeremy Greenwood
Department of Economics
University of Pennsylvania
3718 Locust Walk
McNeil Building, Rm 160
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6297
Tel: 215/898-1505
Fax: 215/746-2947
E-Mail: do-not-use@jeremygreenwood.net

Karen Kopecky
Department of Economics
Social Science Centre
University of Western Ontario
London, Ontario
CANADA N6A 5C2
E-Mail: karen.kopecky@atl.frb.org
AB  - The welfare gain to consumers from the introduction of personal computers is estimated here. A simple model of consumer demand is formulated that uses a slightly modified version of standard preferences. The modification permits marginal utility, and hence total utility, to be finite when the consumption of computers is zero. This implies that the good won't be consumed at a high enough price. It also bounds the consumer surplus derived from the product. The model is calibrated/estimated using standard national income and product account data. The welfare gain from the introduction of personal computers is in the range of 2 to 3 percent of consumption expenditure.
ER  -