The Diffusion of Innovations: A Methodological Reappraisal / Manuel Trajtenberg, Shlomo Yitzhaki.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Trajtenberg, Manuel.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Yitzhaki, Shlomo.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w1008.

NBER working paper series no. w1008

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

The Diffusion of Innovations

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 1982.

Summary:

Studies of diffusion have traditionally relied on specific distributions-primarily the logistic- to characterize and estimate those processes.We argue here that such approach gives rise to serious problems of comparability and interpretation, and may result in large biases inthe estimates of the parameters of interest. We propose instead the Gini's expected mean differenceas ameasure of diffusion speed, discuss its advantages over the traditional approach, and tackle with it the problems of truncated processes, inter-group comparisons, and related issues. We also elaborateon the use of the hazardrate, and suggest some possible extensions. The diffusion of CT scanners is presented as an illustration.

Notes:

Print version record

October 1982.