Publications in Refereed Journals

“Phases of Economic Development and the Transitional Dynamics of an Innovation-Education Growth Model”, Forthcoming, European Economic Review

This paper extends earlier analysis of the transitional dynamics of a growth model in which both human capital and innovation drive income expansion. Funke and Strulik (2000) suggest that the typical advanced economy follows three development phases, characterized in a temporal order by physical capital accumulation, human capital formation, and innovation, and that the transitional dynamics of the model reproduce such a sequencing. I argue that other sequences of the phases of development are possible and show that the model can generate a trajectory in which innovation precedes human capital formation. This trajectory accords with the observation that the rise in formal education followed with a considerable lag the process of industrialization. U.S. income and educational time series data are used to corroborate the innovation-education trajectory.

Keywords: Transitional Dynamics, Innovation, Education.

JEL codes: D90, O31, O33, O41, O47.

“Nanotechnology and the Emergence of a General Purpose Technology” (with Stuart Graham) Forthcoming, Les Annales d'Economie et de Statistique

This article examines how closely nanotechnologies share some identifiable characteristics with previously-identified General Purpose Technologies [GPT]. Using US patent data from 1975-2006, we test for nanotechnology’s "pervasiveness” and for the likelihood that it is spawning follow-on innovation. Introducing several methodological innovations, we employ concentration indices such as the Gini Index and Lorenz curve, and construct a ‘knowledge dissemination curve’ [KDC] for different technologies, thereby offering evidence that nanotechnology shares GPT characteristics with other candidates like information technologies [IT]. We also for the first time use three different definitions of a “nanotechnology patent” and calculate “generality” indices, finding that nanotechnology patents are significantly more general than are IT patents. In a further contribution, we suggest that materials—principally steel—may demonstrate the characteristics of a GPT, and provide a historical parallel between the advancement of steel technology and nanotechnology.

“Technological Progress and Inequality: An Ambiguous Relationship” Journal of Evolutionary Economics, 2008, vol. 18, issue 3, pages 455-475.

Faster technological change does not necessarily widen wage inequality. This occurs only if technical progress takes the form of product improvements. Conversely, cost-reducing innovation favors a reduction in inequality. This novel result is obtained in a theoretical framework in which individuals can choose both the quality of the equipment and the retooling time. The main implication of this work is that the rapid decline of the durable goods' price documented in the postwar period, and especially since the 1970s, should have favored a reduction in income inequality. The popular view that attributes the rise in inequality to the spread of information technologies is questioned by this analysis.

Keywords: Innovation, Inequality, Technological Gap. (JEL Codes: O31; O33; J31).

Here is the appendix and the MATLAB codes used for the paper “Technological Progress and Inequality: An Ambiguous Relationship”

“Assessing the Nature of Nanotechnology: Can We Uncover an Emerging General Purpose Technology?” (with Stuart Graham and Jan Youtie)

Journal of Technology Transfer, 2008, vol. 33, pp: 315-329.

Attention has increasingly been shifted towards the long-run perspective on technological innovation, which suggests that progress comes in waves, each one originated by a major breakthrough or general purpose technology (GPT). This paper seeks to assess whether nanotechnology is likely to become a GPT, which is sometimes assumed though not necessarily documented. Based on a survey of existing literature, the paper will explore the extent to which nanotechnology addresses three primary characteristics of a GPT: pervasiveness, innovation spawning, and improvement. The paper will draw on patent and patent citation databases to highlight the type of quantitative and qualitative information that is still lacking to characterize the nature of nanotechnology.

Keywords: Nanotechnology, General Purpose Technologies, Patent Analysis. (JEL Codes: 0330, 0300, 0340)

Dissemination of Technology in Market and Planned Economies, Contribution to Macroeconomics, Vol. 4: No 1, Article 2. Berkeley Electronic Press. (If you do not have access to this Journal click here to view the article).

The Soviet Union was competing head to head with market economies in the generation of new technologies, not only in traditional industries such as steelmaking, electricity, and machineries, but also in high tech-areas such as synthetic materials and microelectronics. Yet its productivity performance was significantly worse than that of both developing and industrial countries. R&D-based growth models cannot explain this fact, as the Soviet effort in research and education was comparable to that of most advanced countries. I claim that a technology adoption model helps us understand better the Soviet experience. I hypothesize that the Soviet managerial compensation system generated an incentive for the manager to perform only a modest retooling activity out of fear of breaking the production norm that the planner imposed upon the firm.

Keywords: retooling, output target, productivity. (JEL: L60, O31, P51).

A Conversation with William J. Baumol on Capitalism, Innovation and Growth (with A. Guarino), Rivista Internazionale di Scienze Sociali, vol. 111, no. 1, Jan.-Mar. 2003, pp. 3-17.

William J. Baumol has been one of the most influential economists in the last fifty years. Pioneering work in the theory of money, foremost research in the theory of competition, industrial organization and technological change, notable analyses in the theory of externalities and environment, influential research in the theory of productivity and growth are, perhaps, his best known contributions. On August 8^th, 2002 we have interviewed Baumol in his office in the Department of Economics at New York University. The interview lasted about one hour and a half. We started our interview by discussing his new book and then moved to different topics, such as globalization, labor market, growth in underdeveloped countries, environment, education and heath systems, financial markets, history of economic thought and methodology in economics. We have classified our questions in four groups: Capitalism and innovation; Economic growth; Free market and government intervention; Economic theory.