Jabit

A recent New York Times article discussed how American households spend their money. The article presented a graph on the rate of technology “consumption” amongst US households.

It shows, for example, that the Internet was adopted by just over 60% of households within a 15 year period (1990 - 2005), it took approximately 45 years (1927 - 1972) for the same percentage of households to adopt the washing machine, approximately 20 years (1927 - 1947) for 60% of households to adopt the refrigerator and approximately 10 years (1923 - 1933) for 60% of households to adopt radio. The graph suggests that while adoption of technology is taking less time, adoption rate is also linked to the consumers perceived value of the technology in question.

The World Bank’s recently released its Global Economic Prospects: technology diffusion in the developing world 2008 in which it documents that the rate of technology adoption in poor and middle income countries during the past century was far greater than that in “developed” countries (160%, 100%, 77% respectively).

With regard to the definition of technology achievement, the report describes it as:

a broad definition of technology and technological progress, one that encompasses the techniques (including the way the production process is organized) by which goods and services are produced, marketed, and made available to the public.

As for the reason behind the difference:

A sustained policy of increased openness to foreign trade and foreign direct investment (FDI), plus increased investments in human capital, have contributed to substantial improvements in technological achievement in developing countries over the past 15 years.

Links to New York Times article, graph and Global Economic Prospects: technology diffusion in the developing world 2008