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Crossover Inventions and Knowledge Diffusion of General Purpose Technologies: Evidence from the Electrical Technology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2010

Shih-tse Lo  and
Dhanoos Sutthiphisal
Shih-tse Lo*
Affiliation:
Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, Concordia University, 1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West, H 1155, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3G 1M8. E-mail: shihtlo@alcor.concordia.ca.
Dhanoos Sutthiphisal*
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, McGill University, 855 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, Quebec H3A 2T7 Canada; and NBER. E-mail: dhanoos.sutthiphisal@mcgill.ca.
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Abstract

Scholars have long noted the significant impact of general purpose technologies (GPTs) on the economy. However, limited attention has been paid to exploring how they are employed to generate inventions in downstream sectors (crossover inventions), and what factors may facilitate such diffusion. In a study of the introduction of electrical technology in the late-nineteenth-century United States, we find that knowledge spillovers between industries had little influence on the geography of crossover inventions as well as the speed and productivity of crossover inventors. Instead, human capital and an environment promoting inventions in general were more important.

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Type
ARTICLES
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The Journal of Economic History , Volume 70 , Issue 3 , September 2010 , pp. 744 - 764
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 2010

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