Daniel E. Sichel
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View article: Intangibles: How Far We Have Come and The Road Ahead
Intangibles: How Far We Have Come and The Road Ahead Open
Investment in intangible assets as a share of business sector GDP has increased rapidly across advanced market economies during the past several decades, and this explosion in intangible capital has been matched by a huge increase in relat…
View article: The Price of Nails Since 1695: A Window into Economic Change
The Price of Nails Since 1695: A Window into Economic Change Open
This paper focuses on the price of nails since 1695 and the proximate source of changes in those prices. Why nails? They are a basic manufactured product whose form and quality have changed relatively little over the last three centuries, …
View article: The Price of Nails since 1695: A Window into Economic Change
The Price of Nails since 1695: A Window into Economic Change Open
This paper focuses on the price of nails since 1695 and the proximate source of changes in those prices.Why nails?They are a basic manufactured product whose form and quality have changed relatively little over the last three centuries, ye…
View article: Household Innovation and R&D: Bigger than You Think
Household Innovation and R&D: Bigger than You Think Open
Despite recent interest in measuring household activities, investment in household R&D (or household innovation), has not been considered in any of the literatures on national‐accounts‐style measurement. Household R&D is the dedication of …
View article: Measuring Infrastructure in BEA's National Economic Accounts
Measuring Infrastructure in BEA's National Economic Accounts Open
Infrastructure provides critical support for economic activity, and assessing its role requires reliable measures. This paper provides an overview of U.S. infrastructure data in the National Economic Accounts. After developing definitions …
View article: Productivity Measurement: Racing to Keep Up
Productivity Measurement: Racing to Keep Up Open
This article provides a nontechnical review of the literature and issues related to the measurement of aggregate productivity. I begin with a discussion of productivity measures, their performance in recent decades, and key measurement puz…
View article: Getting Smart About Phones: New Price Indexes and the Allocation of Spending Between Devices and Services Plans in Personal Consumption Expenditures
Getting Smart About Phones: New Price Indexes and the Allocation of Spending Between Devices and Services Plans in Personal Consumption Expenditures Open
This paper addresses two measurement issues for mobile phones. First, we develop a new mobile phone price index using hedonic quality-adjusted prices for smartphones and a matched-model index for feature phones. Our index falls at an avera…
View article: The Rise of Cloud Computing: Minding Your P’S, Q's and K's
The Rise of Cloud Computing: Minding Your P’S, Q's and K's Open
Cloud computing—computing done on an off-site network of resources accessed through the Internet—is revolutionizing how computing services are used. However, because cloud is so new and it largely is an intermediate input to other industri…
View article: Own-Account IT Equipment Investment
Own-Account IT Equipment Investment Open
This note considers a puzzle: why has information technology (IT) equipment investment in the National income and Product Accounts (NIPAs) been so weak since 2007 at the same time that financial reports indicate massive increases in capita…
View article: How Fast are Semiconductor Prices Falling?
How Fast are Semiconductor Prices Falling? Open
The Producer Price Index (PPI) for the U.S. suggests that semiconductor prices have barely been falling in recent years, a dramatic contrast to the rapid declines reported from the mid‐1980s to the early 2000s. This slowdown in the rate of…
View article: Prices of High-Tech Products, Mismeasurement, and Pace of Innovation
Prices of High-Tech Products, Mismeasurement, and Pace of Innovation Open
Two recent papers have made compelling cases that mismeasurement of prices of high tech products cannot explain the slow pace of labor productivity growth that has prevailed since the mid-2000s.Does that result indicate that mismeasurement…
View article: The equilibrium real policy rate through the lens of standard growth models
The equilibrium real policy rate through the lens of standard growth models Open
The long-run equilibrium real policy rate is a key concept in monetary economics and an important input into monetary policy decision-making. It has gained particular prominence lately as the Federal Reserve continues to normalize monetary…
View article: Prices of High-Tech Products, Mismeasurement, and Pace of Innovation
Prices of High-Tech Products, Mismeasurement, and Pace of Innovation Open
Two recent papers have made compelling cases that mismeasurement of prices of high tech products cannot explain the slow pace of labor productivity growth that has prevailed since the mid-2000s. Does that result indicate that mismeasuremen…
View article: How Fast are Semiconductor Prices Falling?
How Fast are Semiconductor Prices Falling? Open
The Producer Price Index (PPI) for the United States suggests that semiconductor prices have barely been falling in recent years, a dramatic contrast to the rapid declines reported from the mid-1980s to the early 2000s. This slowdown in th…
View article: Two Books for the Price of One: Review Article of "The Rise and Fall of American Growth" by Robert J. Gordon
Two Books for the Price of One: Review Article of "The Rise and Fall of American Growth" by Robert J. Gordon Open
Robert Gordon has written a remarkable book; actually two "books," one about the past and one about the future. The first "book" is an account of the dramatic changes in American living standards since 1870. Looking forward, the second "bo…
View article: How Fast are Semiconductor Prices Falling?
How Fast are Semiconductor Prices Falling? Open
The Producer Price Index (PPI) for the United States suggests that semiconductor prices have barely been falling in recent years, a dramatic contrast from the rapid declines reported from the mid-1980s to the early 2000s.This slowdown in t…