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The issue of why productivity growth during the British industrial revolution was slow
despite the arrival of famous inventions is revisited using a growth accounting methodology
based on an endogenous innovation model and the perspective of recent literature on general
purpose technologies. The results show that steam had a relatively small and long-delayed
impact on productivity growth when benchmarked against later technologies such as
electricity or ICT. Even so, technological change including embodiment effects accounted
entirely for the acceleration in labor productivity growth that allowed the economy to
withstand rapid population growth without a decline in living standard."
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