Share This Article:

Economic Definition of technology. Defined.

Offline Version: PDF

Term technology Definition: The sum total of knowledge and information that society has acquired concerning the use of resources to produce goods and services. This technology often takes the form of scientific knowledge (the best combination of chemicals to make a long-lasting floor wax), but can also be plain old common sense (irrigate during a drought, not during a flood). Whether scientific or not, technology affects the technical efficiency with which resources are combined in production. An improvement in technology is thus an increase in the technical efficiency of production--more output with given inputs or fewer inputs for a given output. Technology is often embodied in capital goods. Bigger, better, faster, and less expensive computers are the result of advances in silicon chip technology. However, technology is also embodied in labor as human capital.

 

« technological progress | aggregate supply determinant technology »

Permalink: https://glossary.econguru.com/economic-term/technology

Alphabetical Reference to Over 2,000 Economic Terms