Economic and Technical Drivers of Technology Choice: Browsers

Timothy Bresnahan, and Pai-Ling Yin

1/01/2005
(Original Publish Date: 5/13/2004)

The diffusion of new technologies is their adoption by different economic agents at different times. A classical concern in the diffusion of technologies (Griliches, 1957) is the importance of raw technical progress versus economic forces. We examine this classical issue in the modern market of web browsers. Using a new data source, we study browser brand shares and the diffusion of new browser versions. Features of that market also generate novel questions in the economics of diffusion.