General-purpose technology
{{Short description|Technologies that can affect an entire economy at large scale}}
{{more footnotes|date=March 2012}}
General-purpose technologies (GPTs) are technologies that can affect an entire economy (usually at a national or global level).{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7Z77ngEACAAJ&q=editions:k1KIY0NfxM0C|title=The Unbound Prometheus: Technological Change and Industrial Development in Western Europe from ...|last=Landes|first=David S.|date=1976|publisher=At the University Press|language=en}}{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/insideblackboxte00rose|url-access=registration|quote=editions:rcZYDd5BgC0C.|title=Inside the Black Box: Technology and Economics|last=Rosenberg|first=Nathan|date=1982|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521273671|language=en}}{{Cite journal|last1=Bresnahan|first1=Timothy F.|last2=Trajtenberg|first2=M.|date=1995-01-01|title=General purpose technologies 'Engines of growth'?|journal=Journal of Econometrics|volume=65|issue=1|pages=83–108|doi=10.1016/0304-4076(94)01598-T|url=http://www.nber.org/papers/w4148.pdf}} GPTs have the potential to drastically alter societies through their impact on pre-existing economic and social structures. The archetypal examples of GPTs are the steam engine, electricity, and information technology. Other examples include the railroad, interchangeable parts, electronics, material handling, mechanization, control theory (automation), the automobile, the computer, the Internet, medicine, and artificial intelligence, in particular generative pre-trained transformers.
In economics, it is theorized that initial adoption of a new GPT within an economy may, before improving productivity, actually decrease it,{{Cite journal|last1=Liao|first1=Hailin|last2=Wang|first2=Bin|last3=Li|first3=Baibing|last4=Weyman-Jones|first4=Tom|date=2016-09-01|title=ICT as a general-purpose technology: The productivity of ICT in the United States revisited|url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167624516300348|journal=Information Economics and Policy|language=en|volume=36|pages=10–25|doi=10.1016/j.infoecopol.2016.05.001|s2cid=26020335 |issn=0167-6245}} due to: time required for development of new infrastructure; learning costs; and, obsolescence of old technologies and skills. This can lead to a "productivity J-curve" as unmeasured intangible assets are built up and then harvested. {{Cite journal|last1=Brynjolfsson|first1=Erik|last2=Rock|first2=Daniel|last3=Syverson|first3=Chad|title=The Productivity J-Curve: How Intangibles Complement General Purpose Technologies|url=http://www.nber.org/papers/w25148.pdf|journal=American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics|year=2021 |language=en|volume=13|pages=333–372|doi=10.1257/mac.20180386 }} Impending timeframe to utilize the latent benefits of the new technology is deemed a trade-off. Spin-out firms/inventors from organizations that had developed GPTs play an important role in developing applications for GPTs. However, it has been observed that the level of cumulative innovation in GPTs diminishes as more spin-outs into application development occur.{{Cite book |last=Shimizu |first=Hiroshi |url=https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-13-3714-7 |title=General purpose technology, spin-out, and innovation: technological development of laser diodes in the United States and Japan |date=2019 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-981-13-3714-7 |series=Advances in Japanese business and economics |location=Singapore |author-link=Hiroshi Shimizu (professor)}}
Historical GPT according to Lipsey and Carlaw
Economists Richard Lipsey and Kenneth Carlaw suggest that there have only been 24 technologies in history that can be classified as true GPTs.{{cite book |last = Lipsey |first = Richard |authorlink = Richard Lipsey |author2=Kenneth I. Carlaw |author3=Clifford T. Bekhar |year = 2005 |title = Economic Transformations: General Purpose Technologies and Long-Term Economic Growth |url = https://archive.org/details/economictransfor00lips |url-access = registration |publisher = Oxford University Press |isbn = 978-0-19-928564-8 |pages = [https://archive.org/details/economictransfor00lips/page/n153 131]–218}} They define a transforming GPT according to the four criteria listed below:
- is a single, recognisable generic technology
- initially has much scope for improvement but comes to be widely used across the economy
- has many different uses
- creates many spillover effects
Since their book, more GPTs have been added for the 21st century.{{by whom|date=January 2022}}
A GPT can be a product, a process or an organisational system.
=Foundational=
The earliest technologies mentioned by Lipsey and Carlaw occur before the Neolithic period and have not been cast as GPTs, however, they are innovations that the other 24 rely upon.
| class="wikitable"
! !Classification !Date |
| Spoken Language
|process |Pre-10,000 BC |
| Clothing
|product |Pre-10,000 BC |
| Mastery of fire
|process |Pre-10,000 BC |
| Coil pottery
|product |Pre-10,000 BC |
| Weapons (sharp-edged tools)
|product |Pre-10,000 BC |
=Expanded list of 25 technologies=
Steam engine increased labor productivity annually by 0.34%; IT by 0.6% (1995–2005); robotics by 0.36% (1993–2007).{{Cite journal | url=https://hbr.org/2015/06/robots-seem-to-be-improving-productivity-not-costing-jobs | title=Robots Seem to be Improving Productivity, Not Costing Jobs | journal=Harvard Business Review | date=16 June 2015 | last1=Muro | first1=Mark | last2=Andes | first2=Scott }}
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See also
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20070702160325/http://www.oup.com/uk/catalogue/?ci=9780199290895 Economic Transformations: General Purpose Technologies And Long-Term Economic Growth] by Richard G. Lipsey, Kenneth I. Carlaw, Clifford T. Bekar
- [https://techforevers.com/ Usage History of Industrial Robotics from IFR]
- [https://www.margolis.co.uk/half-businesses-could-go-paperless-2015 Paperless office adoption statistics – 2015]
- [http://www.seia.org/research-resources/solar-industry-data Installed solar capacity and solar employment growth – 2015]