Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/152592 
Year of Publication: 
2002
Series/Report no.: 
ECB Working Paper No. 158
Publisher: 
European Central Bank (ECB), Frankfurt a. M.
Abstract: 
We estimate the rate of embodied technological change directly from plant-level manufacturing data on current output and input choices along with histories on their vintages of equipment investment. Our estimates range between 8 and 17 percent for the typical U.S. manufacturing plant during the years 1972-1996. Any number in this range is substantially larger than is conventionally accepted with some important implications. First, the role of investment-specific technological change as an engine of growth is even larger than previously estimated. Second, existing producer durable price indices do not adequately account for quality change. As a result, measured capital stock growth is biased. Third, if accurate, the Hulten and Wykoff (1981) economic depreciation rates may primarily reflect obsolescence.
Subjects: 
embodied technological change
equipment investment
plant
producer durable price index
productivity growth
JEL: 
O3
D24
L60
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
489.63 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.