Report
The impact of competition on technology adoption: an apples-to-PCs analysis
Copeland, Adam; Shapiro, Adam Hale (2010)
We study the effect of market structure on a personal computer manufacturer?s decision to adopt new technology. This industry is unusual because there exist two horizontally segmented retail markets with different degrees of competition: the IBM-compatible (or PC) platform and the Apple platform. We first document that, relative to Apple, producers of PCs typically have more frequent technology adoption, shorter product cycles, and steeper price declines over the product cycle. We then develop a parsimonious vintage-capital model that matches the prices and sales of PC and Apple products. The ...
Staff Reports , Paper 462

Working Paper
Price Setting in an Innovative Market
Copeland, Adam; Shapiro, Adam Hale (2013-02-28)
We examine how the confluence of competition and upstream innovation influences downstream firms? profit-maximizing strategies. In particular, we analyze how, in light of these forces, the downstream firm sets the price of the product over its life cycle. We focus on personal computers (PCs) and introduce two novel data sets that describe prices and sales in the industry. Our main result is that a vintage-capital model that combines a competitive market structure with a rapid rate of innovation is well able to explain the observed paths of prices, as well as sales and consumer income, over a ...
Working Paper Series , Paper 2013-04

Journal Article
Economic history: Games people play: How a major computer and video game cluster formed in rural central Maryland
Gerena, Charles (2012-10)
Related links: https://www.richmondfed.org/-/media/richmondfedorg/publications/research/econ_focus/2012/q4/economic_history_weblinks.cfm
Econ Focus , Volume 16 , Issue 4Q , Pages 35-38