The economics of new goods / edited by Timothy F. Bresnahan and Robert J. Gordon.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Bresnahan, Timothy F.

Gordon, Robert J. (Robert James), 1940-

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Series:

Studies in income and wealth ; v. 58.

Studies in income and wealth ; v. 58

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Consumer price indexes--Congresses.

Consumer price indexes.

New products--Congresses.

New products.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (508 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, c1997.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

New goods are at the heart of economic progress. The eleven essays in this volume include historical treatments of new goods and their diffusion; practical exercises in measurement addressed to recent and ongoing innovations; and real-world methods of devising quantitative adjustments for quality change. The lead article in Part I contains a striking analysis of the history of light over two millennia. Other essays in Part I develop new price indexes for automobiles back to 1906; trace the role of the air conditioner in the development of the American south; and treat the germ theory of disease as an economic innovation. In Part II essays measure the economic impact of more recent innovations, including anti-ulcer drugs, new breakfast cereals, and computers. Part III explores methods and defects in the treatment of quality change in the official price data of the United States, Canada, and Japan. This pathbreaking volume will interest anyone who studies economic growth, productivity, and the American standard of living.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Prefatory Note

Introduction

1. Do Real-Output and Real-Wage Measures Capture Reality? The History of Lighting Suggests Not

2. Quality-Adjusted Prices for the American Automobile Industry: 1906-1940

3. The Welfare Implications of Invention

4. Science, Health, and Household Technology: The Effect of the Pasteur Revolution on Consumer Demand

5. Valuation of New Goods under Perfect and Imperfect Competition

6. Bias in U.S. Import Prices and Demand

7. The Roles of Marketing, Product Quality, and Price Competition in the Growth and Composition of the U.S. Antiulcer Drug Industry

8. From Superminis to Supercomputers: Estimating Surplus in the Computing Market

9. New Products and the U.S. Consumer Price Index

10. The Construction of Basic Components of Cost-of-Living Indexes

11. New Goods from the Perspective of Price Index Making in Canada and Japan

Contributors

Name Index

Subject Index

Notes:

"This volume contains revised versions of the papers and discussion presented at the Conference on Research in Income and Wealth entitled New Products : history, theory, methodology, and applications, held in Williamsburg, Virginia, on 29-30 April 1994. Conference participants also attended a preconference at the National Bureau of Economic Research in December 1993"--P. [ix].

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

ISBN:

9786611430801

9781281430809

1281430803

9780226074184

0226074188

OCLC:

476229444