Structural Change and Technology

Abstract

Neo-Schumpeterians of the 1970s and 1980s argued for the concept of perva- sive technological systems as one way of interpreting creative destruction. Perva- sive technologies are basic innovations that find application in a wide variety of sectors in the economy. It has recently been suggested that the period of rapid eco- nomic growth in the 1990s in the United States can be explained by the rise of a set of technologies known as Information and Communication Technologies (IcT). Such an interpretation is certainly in broad accordance with the notions of Schum- peterian radical technological breakthroughs, creative destruction and pervasive technological systems. This paper provides an attempt to interpret this ICT "revolu- tion" from a Schumpeterian point of view, using input-output data and technology flow matrices the us economy. for The paper concludes with a broad discussion of the historic role of ICT in the us and world economy