[go: up one dir, main page]
More Web Proxy on the site http://driver.im/
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/20379.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Has Creative Destruction Become More Destructive?

Author

Listed:
  • John Komlos
Abstract
Schumpeter's concept of creative destruction as the engine of capitalist development is well-known. However, that the destructive part of creative destruction is a social cost and therefore biases our estimate of the impact of the innovation on NNP and on welfare is hardly acknowledged, with the exception of Witt (1996). Admittedly, during the First and Second Industrial Revolutions the magnitude of the destructive component of innovation was probably small compared to the net value added to employment, NNP or to welfare. However, we conjecture that recently the new technologies are often creating products which are close substitutes for the ones they replace whose value depreciates substantially in the process of destruction. Consequently, the contribution of recent innovations to NNP is likely biased upward. This note calls for a research agenda to estimate innovations into their creative and destructive components in order to provide improved estimates of their contribution to NNP, welfare, and employment.

Suggested Citation

  • John Komlos, 2014. "Has Creative Destruction Become More Destructive?," NBER Working Papers 20379, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20379
    Note: DEV EFG
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w20379.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cecchetti, Stephen & Kharroubi, Enisse, 2015. "Why does financial sector growth crowd out real economic growth?," CEPR Discussion Papers 10642, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    2. Marco Vivarelli, 2014. "Innovation, Employment and Skills in Advanced and Developing Countries: A Survey of Economic Literature," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(1), pages 123-154.
    3. Betsey Stevenson & Justin Wolfers, 2013. "Subjective Well-Being and Income: Is There Any Evidence of Satiation?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(3), pages 598-604, May.
    4. Gauti B. Eggertsson & Neil R. Mehrotra, 2014. "A Model of Secular Stagnation," NBER Working Papers 20574, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. William D. Nordhaus & James Tobin, 1973. "Is Growth Obsolete?," NBER Chapters, in: The Measurement of Economic and Social Performance, pages 509-564, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Rachel E. S. Ziemba & William T. Ziemba, 2013. "Kelly Capital Growth Investing," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Investing in the Modern Age, chapter 13, pages 127-148, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    7. John G. Fernald & Bing Wang, 2015. "The recent rise and fall of rapid productivity growth," FRBSF Economic Letter, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
    8. Brian A'Hearn & Nicola Amendola & Giovanni Vecchi, 2016. "On Historical Household Budgets," Rivista di storia economica, Società editrice il Mulino, issue 2, pages 137-176.
    9. Christian Schubert, 2013. "How to evaluate creative destruction: reconstructing Schumpeter's approach," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 37(2), pages 227-250.
    10. John G. Fernald, 2015. "Productivity and Potential Output before, during, and after the Great Recession," NBER Macroeconomics Annual, University of Chicago Press, vol. 29(1), pages 1-51.
    11. World Bank Group & Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences, 2016. "Vietnam’s Household Registration System," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 24594.
    12. Thomas Piketty, 2013. "Le capital au 21e siècle," PSE-Ecole d'économie de Paris (Postprint) halshs-00944865, HAL.
    13. Thomas Piketty, 2013. "Le capital au XXIe siècle," PSE-Ecole d'économie de Paris (Postprint) halshs-00979232, HAL.
    14. Brounen, Dirk & Koedijk, Kees G. & Pownall, Rachel A.J., 2016. "Household financial planning and savings behavior," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 95-107.
    15. El Hedi Arouri, Mohamed & Rault, Christophe & Sova, Anamaria & Sova, Robert & Teulon, Frédéric, 2013. "Market structure and the cost of capital," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 664-671.
    16. ., 2013. "Developing a capital market under weak enforcement," Chapters, in: Corporate Governance, Enforcement and Financial Development, chapter 4, pages 164-193, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    17. Christian Schubert, 2013. "Is Novelty Always a Good Thing? Towards an Evolutionary Welfare Economics," Economic Complexity and Evolution, in: Guido Buenstorf & Uwe Cantner & Horst Hanusch & Michael Hutter & Hans-Walter Lorenz & Fritz Rahmeyer (ed.), The Two Sides of Innovation, edition 127, pages 209-242, Springer.
    18. Paul Heidhues & Botond K?szegi & Takeshi Murooka, 2016. "Exploitative Innovation," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 8(1), pages 1-23, February.
    19. Tsang, Eric W. K., 2014. "Old and New," Management and Organization Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 10(03), pages 390-390, November.
    20. Offer, Avner, 2007. "The Challenge of Affluence: Self-Control and Well-Being in the United States and Britain since 1950," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199216628.
    21. ., 2013. "Enforcement in China’s capital market," Chapters, in: Corporate Governance, Enforcement and Financial Development, chapter 3, pages 77-163, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    22. ., 2013. "Application to social capital," Chapters, in: Change and Continuity at the World Bank, chapter 6, pages 75-83, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    23. ., 2013. "A cultural political economy of variegated capitalism," Chapters, in: Towards a Cultural Political Economy, chapter 6, pages 233-260, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    24. Witt, Ulrich, 1996. "Innovations, Externalities and the Problem of Economic Progress," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 89(1-2), pages 113-130, October.
    25. Robert J. Gordon, 2012. "Is U.S. Economic Growth Over? Faltering Innovation Confronts the Six Headwinds," NBER Working Papers 18315, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    26. Avner Offer, 2006. "The challenge of affluence: self-control and well-being since 1950," Working Papers 6020, Economic History Society.
    27. ., 2013. "An Islamic economic system or spiritual capitalism?," Chapters, in: What is Wrong with Islamic Economics?, chapter 7, pages 102-120, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    28. Robert J. Gordon, 2014. "The Demise of U.S. Economic Growth: Restatement, Rebuttal, and Reflections," NBER Working Papers 19895, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    29. Joel Mokyr & Chris Vickers & Nicolas L. Ziebarth, 2015. "The History of Technological Anxiety and the Future of Economic Growth: Is This Time Different?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 29(3), pages 31-50, Summer.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Naudé, Wim, 2019. "The Race against the Robots and the Fallacy of the Giant Cheesecake: Immediate and Imagined Impacts of Artificial Intelligence," IZA Discussion Papers 12218, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Jacques Le Cacheux, 2017. "Croissance potentielle : la politique économique au royaume des aveugles ?," Revue économique, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 68(HS1), pages 29-39.
    3. T. Gries & R. Grundmann & I. Palnau & M. Redlin, 2017. "Innovations, growth and participation in advanced economies - a review of major concepts and findings," International Economics and Economic Policy, Springer, vol. 14(2), pages 293-351, April.
    4. Andrei, Daniel & Carlin, Bruce I., 2023. "Schumpeterian competition in a Lucas economy," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 208(C).
    5. Aldieri, Luigi & Bruno, Bruna & Vinci, Concetto Paolo, 2019. "Does environmental innovation make us happy? An empirical investigation," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 166-172.
    6. Castellacci, Fulvio & Tveito, Vegard, 2018. "Internet use and well-being: A survey and a theoretical framework," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 308-325.
    7. Jacques Le Cacheux, 2017. "Croissance potentielle : la politique économique au royaume des aveugles ?," Revue économique, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 68(HS1), pages 29-39.
    8. Sequeira, Tiago Neves & Gil, Pedro Mazeda & Afonso, Oscar, 2018. "Endogenous growth and entropy," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 100-120.
    9. Ian Goldin & Pantelis Koutroumpis & François Lafond & Julian Winkler, 2024. "Why Is Productivity Slowing Down?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 62(1), pages 196-268, March.
    10. Rinaldo Evangelista, 2018. "Technology and Economic Development: The Schumpeterian Legacy," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 50(1), pages 136-153, March.
    11. Mojca Svetek & Mateja Drnovsek, 2022. "Exploring the Effects of Types of Early-Stage Entrepreneurial Activity on Subjective Well-Being," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 23(1), pages 149-170, January.
    12. Auktor, Georgeta Vidican, 2022. "The opportunities and challenges of Industry 4.0 for industrial development: A case study of Morocco's automotive and garment sectors," IDOS Discussion Papers 2/2022, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).
    13. Dulani Jayasuriya Daluwathumullagamage & Alexandra Sims, 2021. "Fantastic Beasts: Blockchain Based Banking," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-43, April.
    14. Moreira, Paulo Pires, 2017. "Why do Portuguese Railways Languish? An Application of Internalisation of Transport Related Externalities," MPRA Paper 79058, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Komlos John, 2018. "On the Accuracy of Estimating the Inflation Rate: Marty Feldstein as Dr. Pangloss," The Economists' Voice, De Gruyter, vol. 15(1), pages 1-3, December.
    16. Srikant Devaraj & Marcus T. Wolfe & Pankaj C. Patel, 2021. "Creative destruction and regional health: evidence from the US," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 31(2), pages 573-604, April.
    17. Bianca I Chigbu & Fhulu H Nekhwevha, 2022. "The extent of job automation in the automobile sector in South Africa," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 43(2), pages 726-747, May.
    18. Anagnostopoulos, Ioannis, 2018. "Fintech and regtech: Impact on regulators and banks," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 7-25.
    19. Saras D. Sarasvathy, 2021. "The Middle Class of Business: Endurance as a Dependent Variable in Entrepreneurship," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 45(5), pages 1054-1082, September.
    20. Freeman, Susan & Vissak, Tiia & Nummela, Niina & Trudgen, Ryan, 2023. "Do technology-focused fast internationalizers’ performance measures change as they mature?," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(5).
    21. Daniel Andrei & Bruce I. Carlin, 2017. "Asset Pricing in the Quest for the New El Dorado," NBER Working Papers 23455, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Komlos John, 2016. "Has Creative Destruction become more Destructive?," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 16(4), pages 1-12, October.
    2. Mendieta-Muñoz, Ivan, 2015. "Is potential output growth falling?," MPRA Paper 68278, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Mengheng Li & Ivan Mendieta‐Muñoz, 2020. "Are long‐run output growth rates falling?," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 71(1), pages 204-234, February.
    4. Bianchi, Francesco & Kung, Howard & Morales, Gonzalo, 2019. "Growth, slowdowns, and recoveries," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 47-63.
    5. Rinaldo Evangelista, 2018. "Technology and Economic Development: The Schumpeterian Legacy," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 50(1), pages 136-153, March.
    6. Andrea Caggese & Ander Pérez-Orive, 2017. "Capital Misallocation and Secular Stagnation," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2017-009, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    7. Kevin Hjortshøj O'Rourke, 2015. "Economic Impossibilities for our Grandchildren?," NBER Working Papers 21807, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Lange, Steffen & Pütz, Peter & Kopp, Thomas, 2018. "Do Mature Economies Grow Exponentially?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 123-133.
    9. Guido Baldi & Patrick Harms, 2015. "Productivity Growth, Investment, and Secular Stagnation," DIW Roundup: Politik im Fokus 83, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    10. Ursel Baumann & Melina Vasardani, 2016. "The slowdown in US productivity growth - what explains it and will it persist?," Working Papers 215, Bank of Greece.
    11. Carvalho, Carlos & Ferrero, Andrea & Nechio, Fernanda, 2016. "Demographics and real interest rates: Inspecting the mechanism," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 208-226.
    12. Philippe Aghion, 2017. "Entrepreneurship and growth: lessons from an intellectual journey," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 48(1), pages 9-24, January.
    13. Lichtblau, Karl & Bähr, Cornelius & Millack, Agnes & van Baal, Sebastian & aus dem Moore, Nils & Korfhage, Thorben, 2015. "Zukunft von Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft unter Minimalwachstumsbedingungen: Begründungsmuster, Folgen, Handlungsoptionen," RWI Projektberichte, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, number 123324.
    14. Jimeno, Juan F., 2015. "Long-lasting consequences of the European crisis," Working Paper Series 1832, European Central Bank.
    15. Aldieri, Luigi & Bruno, Bruna & Vinci, Concetto Paolo, 2019. "Does environmental innovation make us happy? An empirical investigation," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 166-172.
    16. Peter Goodridge & Jonathan Haskel & Gavin Wallis, 2018. "Accounting for the UK Productivity Puzzle: A Decomposition and Predictions," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 85(339), pages 581-605, July.
    17. Gabriele Fiorentini & Alessandro Galesi & Gabriel Pérez-Quirós & Enrique Sentana, 2018. "The rise and fall of the natural interest rate," Working Papers 1822, Banco de España.
    18. Avner Offer, 2013. "Narrow Banking, Real Estate, and Financial Stability in the UK, c.1870-2010," Oxford Economic and Social History Working Papers _116, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    19. Singh, Anuraag & Triulzi, Giorgio & Magee, Christopher L., 2021. "Technological improvement rate predictions for all technologies: Use of patent data and an extended domain description," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(9).
    20. Eckhard Hein, 2016. "Secular stagnation or stagnation policy? Steindl after Summers," PSL Quarterly Review, Economia civile, vol. 69(276), pages 3-47.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E01 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General - - - Measurement and Data on National Income and Product Accounts and Wealth; Environmental Accounts
    • O10 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20379. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.