With their typical verbal flair, economists call innovations like steam power and electricity general purpose technologies (GPTs). Economic historian Gavin Wright offers a concise definition: “deep new ideas or techniques that have the potential for important impacts on many sectors of the economy.”7 “Impacts” here mean significant boosts to output due to large productivity gains. GPTs are important because they are economically significant—they interrupt and accelerate the normal march of economic progress. In addition to agreeing on their importance, scholars have also come to a consensus on
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