Lobbies and Technology Diffusion

Abstract

This paper explores whether lobbies slow down technology diffusion. To answer this question, we exploit the differential effect of various institutional attributes that should affect the costs of erecting barriers when the new technology has a technologically close predecessor but not otherwise. We implement this test using a data set that covers the diffusion of twenty technologies for 23 countries over the past two centuries. We find that each of the relevant institutional variables that affect the costs of erecting barriers has a significantly larger effect on the diffusion of technologies with a competing predecessor technology than when no such technology exists. These effects are quantitatively important. Thus, we conclude that lobbies are an important barrier to technology adoption and to development. Copyright by the President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Technology Innovation and Diffusion as Sources of Output and Asset Price Fluctuations

“…An "innovation" shock has the flavor of a news shocks because it influences expectations of 17 The most important component in (31) to account for the upward trend during the second half of the 90s is the value of adopted innovations. 18 All these figures are in 2000 US dollars.…”

“…In particular, the model captures the relatively slow growth between 1984 and 1994, the acceleration starting in 1994-95. 17 The The similarity of these increases is somewhat surprising, given that we have not used any information from the stock market to estimate the model. …”

TFP Convergence Across European Regions: A Comparative Spatial Dynamics Analysis

“…This evidence is usually explained by differences in human capital stocks, as firstly suggested by Nelson and Phelps (1966), and/or by institutional quality heterogeneity, (Hall and Jones, 1999;Acemoglu et al, 2001and 2006, Comin et al, 2009, and/or by the existence of monopoly rights of various forms that create a barrier to technology adoption, as in Parente and Prescott (1999). However, more puzzling is the evidence that slow processes of technology adoption are observed even across similar leading countries of the world economy (Comin andHobijn, 2004 andComin et al 2006) or across regions within the same country or within union of states (see Magrini, 2004, for a review).…”

Structural Development Accounting

“…Regarding the origin of such barriers to adoption, the idea that they may have politico-economic roots has been put forward, among others, by Prescott (1994, 2000), Krusell and Rios Rull (1997) and Acemoglu, Aghion and Zilibotti (2006). Comin and Hobijn (2009) provide evidence that lobbies may slow down technology di¤usion. While our goal is mostly to estimate barriers to adoption abstracting from their political determinants, the model provides new insights on why some agents may bene…t from their existence.…”