Abstract
Economists have come to use the term ‘general purpose technology’ (GPT) to describe technological advances that pervade many sectors, improve rapidly, and spawn further innovations. This article addresses the concept of a GPT by example, showing the extent to which electricity and information technology might qualify as members of this special class of inventions, as opposed to more ordinary ones.
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Acknowledgments
The author acknowledges financial support from the National Science Foundation.
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Rousseau, P.L. (2018). General Purpose Technologies. In: The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_2037
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_2037
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