Measuring the Welfare Gain from Personal Computers: A Macroeconomic Approach
26 Pages Posted: 14 Nov 2007 Last revised: 22 Aug 2022
There are 2 versions of this paper
Measuring the Welfare Gain from Personal Computers
Date Written: November 2007
Abstract
The welfare gain to consumers from the introduction of personal computers is estimated here. A simple model of consumer demand is formulated that uses a slightly modified version of standard preferences. The modification permits marginal utility, and hence total utility, to be finite when the consumption of computers is zero. This implies that the good won't be consumed at a high enough price. It also bounds the consumer surplus derived from the product. The model is calibrated/estimated using standard national income and product account data. The welfare gain from the introduction of personal computers is in the range of 2 to 3 percent of consumption expenditure.
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?
Recommended Papers
-
Valuing Consumer Products by the Time Spent Using Them: An Application to the Internet
By Austan Goolsbee and Peter J. Klenow
-
Sweet Diversity: Colonial Goods and the Rise of European Living Standards after 1492
By Jonathan Hersh and Hans-joachim Voth
-
Sweet Diversity: Colonial Goods and the Rise of European Living Standards after 1492
By Jonathan Hersh and Hans-joachim Voth
-
Sweet Diversity: Colonial Goods and the Rise of European Living Standards after 1492
By Jonathan Hersh and Hans-joachim Voth
-
Measuring the Welfare Gain from Personal Computers
By Jeremy Greenwood and Karen A. Kopecky
-
Measuring the Welfare Gain from Personal Computers: A Macroeconomic Approach
By Karen A. Kopecky and Jeremy Greenwood
-
Made in America? The New World, the Old, and the Industrial Revolution
By Gregory Clark, Kevin H. O'rourke, ...