Learning by Doing

James Bessen, an economist who spent years running a software company, asks why new technologies take so long to raise wages. His answer starts with how the knowledge is acquired. It is learned on the job rather than in classrooms, and it spreads slowly. During the transition, workers who acquire it can be paid poorly because the skills are not yet portable between employers. History makes the same point each time, through the power loom, the typewriter and the computer.