Although technical change is central in much of modern economics, traditional measures of it are, for a number of reasons, flawed. We discuss in this paper new indicators based on data drawn from the MARC records of the Library of Congress on the number of new technology titles in various fields...

New indicators, based on technology titles, are used to measure the impact of innovative activity on the U.S. labor market between 1909 and 1949. We find positive technology shocks raised productivity, employment, vacancies and labor turnover and lowered unemployment. Moreover, innovations in...

Are uncertainty shocks an important source of post WWII business cycle fluctuations? The evidence we present in this paper suggests they are. Using both the traditional measure of uncertainty – the stock market volatility index – and a new one - based on the number of New York Times’...

New indicators of technical change in the field of computers based on new titles held by Canadian libraries are presented, and are used to demonstrate that a positive computer technology shock in Canada increases hours worked, output, and productivity in the short run. These measures indicate,...

New indicators of technological change in the US based on information drawn from the catalogue of the Library of Congress for the period 1909-1949 are developed and used to pinpoint the relationship, first, between technical change and economic activity, and, second, between fluctuations in...

New indicators of technical change based on titles included in the catalogue of the Library of Congress and on Amazon.com's website are presented along with evidence that they do capture technological innovation. The indicators are used to chart the pattern and nature of technical change over...