How is Technology defined in Economics?

Question

I understand that technology is synonymous with productivity, or the residual, i.e. (everything apart from human and physical capital) in Economics. Are there any other definitions that economists use?

Answer 1

I think it can be a synonym of State of the Technique too. Which means the level of technique or technology that allows new capital to be in use or that sets the innovation and technological level in a productive society. It can be related to productivity or to goods and services level of innovation.

Answer 2

This is perhaps best answered in the context of a specific model.
Take the standard growth model. The resource constraint is $I + C = A F(K, L)$.
This R.C. is a description of a technology. It maps inputs (K and L) into feasible outputs (I + C).
So, a technology describes how inputs can be transformed into outputs.
The outputs need not be goods (in the traditional sense of stuff you can touch).
The $A$ part in the R.C. is a productivity term. In specific models, changes in $A$ are due to changes in available technologies (e.g., R&D driven growth models), but more generally differences in $A$ across, say, countries, could be due to other things (e.g., institutions).