TY - JOUR
T1 - General purpose technology and wage inequality
AU - Aghion, Philippe
AU - Howitt, Peter
AU - Violante, Giovanni L.
N1 - Funding Information:
* We thank Daron Acemoglu, John Hassler, Elhanan Helpman, Zvi Hercowitz, and Steve Machin for comments, and seminar participants at Brown, Carlos III, CEMFI, Cornell, ECARE, Essex, Harvard, Hebrew University, MIT, Stockholm University, Toulouse, and UCL. Aghion acknowledges financial support from the McArthur Foundation and from Harvard University. Aghion and Violante acknowledge financial support from the ESRC Centre for Economic Learning and Social Evolution (ELSE). y Corresponding author: Giovanni L. Violante, Department of Economics, University College London, London, WC1E 6BT, UK.
PY - 2002/12
Y1 - 2002/12
N2 - The recent changes in the US wage structure are often linked to the new wave of capital-embodied information technologies. The existing literature has emphasized either the accelerated pace or the skill-bias of embodied technical progress as the driving force behind the rise in wage inequality. A key, neglected, aspect is the "general purpose" nature of the new information technologies. This paper formalizes the idea of generality of technology in two ways, one related to human capital (skill transferability) and one to physical capital (vintage compatibility) and studies the impact of an increase in these two dimensions of technological generality on equilibrium wage inequality.
AB - The recent changes in the US wage structure are often linked to the new wave of capital-embodied information technologies. The existing literature has emphasized either the accelerated pace or the skill-bias of embodied technical progress as the driving force behind the rise in wage inequality. A key, neglected, aspect is the "general purpose" nature of the new information technologies. This paper formalizes the idea of generality of technology in two ways, one related to human capital (skill transferability) and one to physical capital (vintage compatibility) and studies the impact of an increase in these two dimensions of technological generality on equilibrium wage inequality.
KW - Experience premium
KW - General purpose technology
KW - Skill transferability
KW - Vintage compatibility
KW - Wage inequality
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U2 - 10.1023/A:1020875717066
DO - 10.1023/A:1020875717066
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0038895233
SN - 1381-4338
VL - 7
SP - 315
EP - 345
JO - Journal of Economic Growth
JF - Journal of Economic Growth
IS - 4
ER -