An Intensive Exploration of Technology Diffusion / Diego A. Comin, Martí Mestieri.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Comin, Diego A.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Mestieri, Martí.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w16379.

NBER working paper series no. w16379

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2010.

Summary:

We present a tractable model for the analysis of the relationship between economic growth and the intensive and extensive margins of technology adoption. At the aggregate level, our model is isomorphic to a neoclassical growth model. The microeconomic underpinnings of growth come from technology adoption of firms, both at the extensive and the intensive margin. We use a data set of 15 technologies and 166 countries to estimate the intensive and extensive margin of adoption using the structural equations derived from our model. We find that the variability across countries in the intensive margin is higher than in the extensive margin. The cross country variation in intensive margin of adoption accounts for around 40% of the variation in income per capita.

Notes:

Print version record

September 2010.