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Embodied Technological Change, Learning‐by‐doing and the Productivity Slowdown *
Author(s) -
Boucekkine Raouf,
Del Río Fernando,
Licandro Omar
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
scandinavian journal of economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.725
H-Index - 64
eISSN - 1467-9442
pISSN - 0347-0520
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9442.00006
Subject(s) - obsolescence , slowdown , economics , productivity , technological change , embodied cognition , investment (military) , learning by doing , consumption (sociology) , shock (circulatory) , technical change , production (economics) , macroeconomics , economic growth , business , marketing , computer science , sociology , medicine , social science , artificial intelligence , politics , political science , law
The productivity slowdown in the US economy since the first oil shock has recently been associated with a larger decline rate of the relative price of equipment investment and a smaller rate of disembodied technical change. We set up a growth model in which learning‐by‐doing is the engine of both embodied and disembodied technological progress. A shift in the relative efficiency of learning‐by‐doing from the consumption to the investment sector is shown to imply a technological reassignment consistent with the above‐mentioned evidence. This result derives from the interaction between the obsolescence costs inherent in embodiment and the learning‐by‐doing engine.