The Identification of Technical Change in the Electricity Generating Industry

Abstract

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses steam electric generating plants for the identification of technical change in the electricity generating industry. The main reason for analyzing electric power industry particular industry was that data on operation and costs for individual plants are readily available from the Federal Power Commission. This industry is a very important one in the economy in that its output is used by virtually every other sector of the economy. Moreover, it is one of the largest industries in the United States - in fact, it is by far the largest in terms of gross capital assets. The apparent rate of technological change, as indicated by plant characteristics and factor efficiency, has been fairly rapid. The electric power industry is a highly capital-intensive industry. The capital stock of a particular plant tends to increase in spurts at discrete time intervals because of an inherent indivisibility of the machines requiring simultaneous installation of boilers and turbogenerators which can, however, come in almost any size.