Decomposing Productivity Growth in the U.S. Computer Industry
估计了1978至1999年美国计算机行业的联合生产模型，将全要素生产率增长分解为工艺创新、产品创新和规模经济的贡献，发现产品创新贡献了约30%的增长，且1990年代末的生产率加速主要源于产品创新。
In this paper, we examine the sources of the productivity growth in the U.S. computer industry from 1978 to 1999. We estimate a joint production model of output quantity and quality that distinguishes two types of technological changes: process and product innovations. Based on the estimation results, we decompose total factor productivity (TFP) growth rate into the contributions of process and product innovations and scale economies. We find that product innovation associated with better quality accounts for about 30% of the TFP growth in the computer industry. Furthermore, the TFP acceleration in the computer industry in the late 1990s is mainly derived from a rapid increase in product innovation. Copyright by the President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.