Have diffusion rates been accelerating over time?

It is widely believed that products are diffusing within the marketplace at an increasing pace. To empirically investigate this belief, diffusion model parameters are estimated for a large set of consumer durables in the home appliance industry, Multiple measures of diffusion rates are then computed and compared across products by year of introduction. Contrary to conventional wisdom, no statistical relationship is found. These results suggest that diffusion rates havenot been systematically accelerating over time.

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