Information Technology and Economic Change: The Impact of The Printing Press *
研究了15世纪印刷机在欧洲城市的采用对16世纪城市经济增长的影响，发现采用印刷机的城市比未采用的城市增长快60%，且这一效应并非由选址优势导致。
The printing press was the great innovation in early modern information technology, but economists have found no macroeconomic evidence of its impact. This article exploits city-level data. Between 1500 and 1600, European cities where printing presses were established in the 1400s grew 60% faster than otherwise similar cities. Cities that adopted printing in the 1400s had no prior advantage, and the association between adoption and subsequent growth was not due to printers choosing auspicious locations. These findings are supported by regressions that exploit distance from Mainz, Germany--the birthplace of printing--as an instrument for adoption. Copyright 2011, Oxford University Press.