The Internet as a GPT : Factor Market Implications

The concept of a General Purpose Technology, or GPT, is subject to a variety of interpretations. Innovations in communications technology such as the Internet, in particular the ability to transmit large bolumes of data instantly, and at close to zero marginal cost to large populations around the world, is an innovation which most certainly must qualify as a GPT by almost any definition. In this paper on particular aspect of that technology and its economic effects if focused on -- the ability to remove the barriers to mobility of particular types of services.