Technological spillovers and general purpose technologies
This chapter presents a comprehensive historical analysis of two general purpose technologies (GPTs) — the Internet and nanotechnology. A GPT is an enabling technology, one that when adopted and used is expected to change production and consumption activity and behaviour. Both of these technologies have benefited from public sector initiatives and public sector intervention. Such public sector influence is economically justifiable, in part, on the grounds that the technologies generate technological spillovers, thus the marginal social benefits of the technologies are greater than the marginal private benefits so firms will not invest in these technologies on their own to the level that is socially desirable.
Keywords: general purpose technology, innovation, Internet, nanotechnology
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