The present affluence in the industrial world is the result of a long process starting 300 years ago with the invention of the steam engine and the gradual replacement of fire-wood by coal. Together with the later combustion engine the steam engine now sup-plies 80 percent of the power...

Does the concept of General Purpose Technologies help explain periods of faster and slower productivity advance in economies? The paper develops a new comparative data set on the usage of electricity in the manufacturing sectors of the USA, Britain, France, Germany and Japan and proceeds to...

The study investigates the role of governance (i.e., 'voice & accountability', political stability/no violence, regulatory quality, government effectiveness, corruption-control and the rule of law) in the incidence of short-term debt services on infrastructure development in the perspective of...

The concept of the General Purpose Technology (GPT) of the late 1990s is a culmination of many evolutionary views in innovation-thinking. By definition the GPT considers the technical, social, and economic effects of meta-technologies like steam-technology and electric technology. This paper...

The concept of the General Purpose Technology (GPT) of the late 1990s is a culmination of many evolutionary views in innovation-thinking. By definition the GPT considers the technical, social, and economic effects of meta-technologies like steam-technology and electric technology. This paper...

This paper evaluates the link between the diffusion of electricity and the increase in labour productivity growth in the manufacturing sector during the inter-war period. A comparative analysis of the USA, Britain, Germany, and Japan shows that the trend acceleration in labour productivity is...

This paper asks whether increasing productivity in the electricity sector can yield larger long-run GDP gains than suggested by electricity's small share of aggregate economic activity. We answer this question using a dynamic model in which electricity is a strong complement to other inputs in...

This paper brings together the debate on economic impacts of renewable energy (RE) deployment and the discussion on modelling endogenous technological change on the global markets for the different renewable power generation technologies. Economic impacts of RE deployment are still mostly...

This paper explores cost-effective low-carbon R&D and capital investment portfolios for the electricity generation sector through 2060. We present a novel method for long-term planning by combining an economic model of endogenous non-linear technical change and a generation capacity planning...