The production recipes approach to modeling technological innovation: An application to learning by doing

Philip Auerswald, Stuart Kauffman, José Lobo, Karl Shell

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

96 Scopus citations

Abstract

We do two things in this paper. First, we put forward some elements of a microeconomic theory of technological evolution. This involves adding nascent (essentially undiscovered) technologies to the existing technologies of neoclassical production theory, and, more importantly, expanding the notion of the production plan to include the recipe - the complete description of the underlying engineering process. Second, we use the recipes approach in constructing a simple microeconomic model of shop-floor learning by doing. We simulate the dynamics of the model and report the effects of changes in the basic parameters on the resulting engineering experience curves. For correctly chosen values of these parameters, the predictions of the model match the observed experience curves.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)389-450
Number of pages62
JournalJournal of Economic Dynamics and Control
Volume24
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 2000

Keywords

  • D20
  • D21
  • D24
  • D83
  • Engineering experience curves
  • L23
  • Learning by doing
  • Learning curves
  • O30
  • Production recipes
  • Technological evolution

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Economics and Econometrics
  • Control and Optimization
  • Applied Mathematics

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