Does Economic History Need GPTs?

Abstract

In the last decade one of the most successful memes in economic history has been the concept of a general purpose technology. The rapid multiplication of technologies accorded this designation has raised questions about whether the concept has gotten out of hand. My intent in this essay is to ask whether the concept has indeed gotten out of hand, and, more fundamentally, whether, when the concept of a GPT and the ways it has been used are critically examined, we may conclude that the discipline of economic history could do as well without it. I note that the GPT criteria are not always consistently applied, the technologies under discussion are often not clearly identified, and that the criteria ultimately do a haphazard job of separating the consequential from the inconsequential.

Keywords: GPTs, Technological Change, TFP, Social Savings

JEL Classification: N01, N1, O3, O47