software as capital

Michael Perelman michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
Sat Aug 28 13:25:51 PDT 1999


Doug Henwood wrote:


> Here's what Greenspan said the other day:

Doug, can you give the exact web site.

Paul Strassmann attacks Brynjolfsson. He attributes the productivity paradox to the rapid replacement cycles. As you know, I attribute the long recession of the late 19th C. to a similar phenomenon. Here is a short reference to Strassmann, who also has a more recent book.

Strassmann, Paul A. 1997. The Squandered Computer: Evaluating the Business Alignment of Information Technologies (Information Economics Press). 77: "The build-and-tear down practices associated with each of the computerization investment cycles are the primary reason that we have not seen effective cost reductions in overall information processing costs in our society."


> Some analysts judge the size of undercapitalized outlays as
> quite large. [footnote: For example, Erik Brynjolfsson and Shinkyu
> Yang, "The Intangible Costs and Benefits of Computer Investments:
> Evidence from the Financial Markets," MIT Sloan School, mimeo, April
> 1999.]

-- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929

Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu



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