How much technological progress has there been in structures? An attempt is made to measure this using panel data on the age and rents for buildings. This data is interpreted through the eyes of a vintage capital model where buildings are replaced at some chosen periodicity. There appears to have been significant technological advance in structures that accounts for a major part of economic growth.
Gross domestic product today is only modestly bigger than it was 100 years ago, at least if it’s measured in tons! While this may seem an absurd way to measure GDP, the point is that how economic variables are measured is important.
