The transition to a new economy after the Second Industrial Revolution

During the Second Industrial Revolution, 1860–1900, many new technologies, including electricity, were invented. After this revolution, however, several decades passed before these new technologies diffused and measured productivity growth increased. We build a quantitative model of technology diffusion which we use to study this transition to a new economy. We show that the model implies both slow diffusion and a delay in growth similar to that in the data. Our model casts doubt, however, on the conjecture that this experience is a useful parallel for understanding the productivity paradox following the Information Technology Revolution.

New Trade Models, Same Old Gains?

Micro-level data have had a profound influence on research in international trade over the last ten years. In many regards, this research agenda has been very successful. New stylized facts have been uncovered and new trade models have been developed to explain these facts. In this paper we investigate to what extent answers to new micro-level questions have affected answers to an old and central question in the field: how large are the welfare gains from trade? A crude summary of our results is: "So far, not much." (JEL F11, F12)

Minimalistic Dynamic Climbing

No official endorsement should be inferred. Keywords: Climbing robots, Dynamic locomotion, Minimalism, Nonlinear analysis, Openloop, Dynamics in locomotion is highly useful, as can be seen in animals and is becoming apparent in robots. For instance, chimpanzees are dynamic climbers that can reach virtually any part of a tree and even move to neighboring trees, while sloths are quasistatic climbers confined only to a few branches. Although dynamic maneuvers are undoubtedly beneficial, only a few engineered systems use them, most of which locomote horizontally. This is because the design and control are often extremely complicated. This thesis explores a family of dynamic climbing robots which extend robotic dynamic legged locomotion from horizontal motions such as walking, hopping, and running, to vertical motions such as leaping maneuvers. The motion of these dynamic robots resembles the motion of an athlete jumping and climbing inside a chute. Whereas this environment might be an unnavigable obstacle for a slow, quasistati

Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Research Department Staff Report 472 On Financing Retirement with an Aging Population *

ABSTRACT A problem facing the United States is financing retirement consumption as its population ages. Policy analysts increasingly advocate switching to a savings-for-retirement system that does not rely on taxing workers' incomes, but are concerned about insufficient savings opportunities with limited government debt. This concern is unwarranted. First, there is more productive capital than commonly assumed in macroeconomic modeling. Second, if the policy reform subsumes the elimination of capital income taxes, then the value of business equity increases relative to the capital stock. We show how to devise a transition path from the current U.S. system to a savingsfor-retirement system that increases the welfare of all current and future cohorts, with estimates of future gains that are twice as large as those found with typically used macroeconomic models