Technology and productivity in historical perspective: Introduction (original) (raw)
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Historical Perspective of the Role of Technology in Economic Development
The focus of this paper is to investigate technology changes and influence on economies since the First Industrial Revolution. The First Industrial Revolution was the first point in time when both increase of GDP per capita and population occurred at the same time (avoiding the Malthusian trap). Thus the selected point in time. Furthermore, developments of the late 18th and 19th centuries have some common properties with development of new technologies today. Even though the process of technological change changed during this time, there are still some lessons to be learned from distant and near history on how to gauge policies for fostering successful technological advances. Changes that occurred are relevant for respective economies, industries, companies and individuals. On all these levels changes occurred that were unprecedented in history before the First Industrial Revolution. It is not suggested that technological progress of centuries before the First Industrial Revolution ...
The concept of technology in the history of economic thought. (2017)
Libre Empresa, 2017
All schools of economic thought prior to Schumpeter did not pay attention to the processes of technological innovation which was assumed to be included in the capital-machine variable. The different approaches used from Schumpeter to the present are described, including neoclassical and evolutionary schools, which are oriented to demonstrate that there can be neither growth nor development unless there are public policies that enhance the capacity of technological innovation from the educational and business. The study of technological innovation has gone from being an exclusive subject of macroeconomic policy to an issue of entrepreneurial and multidisciplinary dominance
The Contribution of Economic History to the Study of Innovation and Technical Change: 1750–1914
Handbook of The Economics of Innovation, Vol. 1, 2010
on receiving credit and recognition for the contribution as part of a signaling game in which the goal is to establish a reputation. Much innovation in the past functioned very similarly. The dichotomy according to which science operated according to open-source systems whereas technology was subject to private property constraints is seriously exaggerated. Equally important in making innovation a unique topic in economic history is the fact that technology is produced under the kind of uncertainty that can be characterized as a combination of unintended consequences and unknown outcomes. In large part this is the case because technology is normally developed when the exact modus operandi of the physical, biological, or chemical processes utilized are at best understood very partially. Many inventions have unforeseeable spillover effects on the environment, human health, or the social fabric. Moreover, many innovations are often combined with other techniques in ways not originally foreseen, to produce wholly novel hybrid techniques that do far more than the simple sum of the components. As a consequence, inventors are often surprised by the eventual outcomes of what seems successful innovation. Such surprises can be, of course, positive or negative. The progress of technology has been explained by both internalist and externalist theories. Internalists see an autonomous logic, an evolutionary process in which one advance leads to another, in which contingency plays a major role, in which the past largely determines the future. Externalists think of technological change as determined by economic needs, by necessity stimulating invention, by induced innovation being guided by factor prices and resource endowments. In the same camp, but with a different emphasis are social constructionists who regard technology as the result of political processes and cultural transformations, in which certain ideas triumph in the marketplace because they serve certain special class or group interests and powerful lobbies. The history of technology since the Industrial Revolution provides support as well as problems for all of those approaches. A more inclusive approach would separate the process into interactive components. For instance, there is no question that economic needs serve as a "focusing device" in Rosenberg's (1976) famous simile, but the popular notion that "necessity is the mother of invention" manages to be simultaneously a platitude and a falsehood. Societies tend to be innovative and creative for reasons that have little to do with pressing economic need; our own society is a case in point. Modern western society is by and large wealthy enough to not feel any pressing "need," yet it is innovative and creative beyond the wildest dreams of the innovators of the eighteenth century. There was no "necessity" involved in the invention of ipods or botox. The social agenda of technology is often set by market forces or national needs, but there is nothing ever to guarantee that this agenda will be successful and to make sure what it will lead to. Technology moves at a certain speed, and in certain directions, and the study of innovation helps us understand these laws of motion. Moreover, to come to grips with why technology changes the way it does, we need to be clearer about the way in which prescriptive knowledge (technology) and propositional knowledge (science and general knowledge about nature) affect one another. Knowledge about the physical environment creates an epistemic base for techniques in use. Technology, in turn, sets the agenda for scientists, creating a feedback mechanism. Why, for instance, 7 steam engines and develop the iron-processing improvements that Britain did on its own. Not all artisans were friendly and conducive to technological progress, as Hilaire-Pérez points out. The armourers' resistance to Honoré Blanc and interchangeable parts in musket making helped derail a potentially promising advance. The Lyon weavers' resistance to the Jacquard loom failed, but only after the innovators were given military protection. The First Industrial Revolution: a New Approach The absence of long-term growth in most societies is thus clearly overdetermined. The real miracle is not that these Malthusian societies grew so slowly, but that they were, in the end, replaced by a society in which rapid growth became the norm. What I have called the Industrial Enlightenment (Mokyr, 2002) was an attempt to recognize this problem and rectify it. The Industrial Enlightenment was an attempt to carry out Bacon's dream that useful knowledge would become "a rich storehouse, for the Glory of the Creator and relief of Man's estate" (Bacon, ed. Vickers, 1996, p. 143). In the New Organon Bacon explained what became almost axiomatic to his followers in the eighteenth century: "If Man endeavor to establish and extend the power and dominion of the human race itself over the universe, his ambition…is without doubt a wholesome thing and …noble… Now the empire of man over things depends wholly on the arts and sciences. For we cannot command Nature except by obeying her" (aphorism 129, cited in Bacon, ed. Sargent, 1999, p. 147). The influence of Bacon on subsequent generations was enormous. Clearly, he had expressed a sentiment that was already in the air at his time, but by expressing it with precision and impeccable logical reasoning, he became, with
Technological Breakthroughs and Productivity Growth
Research in Economic History, 2006
This study consists of an examination of productivity growth following three major technological breakthroughs: the steam power revolution, electrification and the ICT revolution. The distinction between sectors producing and sectors using the new technology is emphasized. A major finding for all breakthroughs is that there is a long lag from the time of the original invention until a substantial increase in the rate of productivity growth can be observed. There is also strong evidence of rapid price decreases for steam engines, electricity, electric motors and ICT products. However, there is no persuasive direct evidence that the steam engine producing industry and electric machinery had particularly high productivity growth rates. For the ICT revolution the highest productivity growth rates are found in the ICT-producing industries. We suggest that one explanation could be that hedonic price indexes are not used for the steam engine and the electric motor. Still, it is likely that the rate of technological development has been much more rapid during the ICT revolution compared to any of the previous breakthroughs.
Economic Themes, 2016
The aim of the research in this paper is to analyse the issue of the treatment of the category of technological changes within the main aspects of economic growth theory. The analysis of the key positions of neoclassical theory (Solow), endogenous approach (Romer), and evolutionary growth theory (Freeman) advocates has pointed to the conclusion that these approaches agree on the fact that the category of technological changes is a key generator of economic growth. Neoclassicists were the first to explicitly analyse the category of technological changes in growth theory. They exerted a strong influence on a large number of governments to allocate significant funds for scientific and research development, to stimulate the creation and diffusion of innovation. Supporters of endogenous theory also see the category of technological changes as a key driver of economic growth. Unlike neoclassicists, they emphasise the importance of externalities, in the form of technological spillover and ...
Technology and Economic Development*
Metroeconomica, 1984
The main argument put forward in the paper is that the recent neo-Schumpeterian literature, while providing fundamental contributions to our understanding of innovation, has contributed to the emergence of an optimistic reading of the relationship between technology, economy, and society, with technology able to guarantee strong economic growth and social welfare. It is also argued that such an "optimistic bias" has been associated with a dominant supply-side and micro-based view of the technology-economy relationships.
Long-Term Economic Growth and the History of Technology
Handbook of Economic Growth, 2005
The opening line of the standard textbook in the area states that the "most basic proposition of growth theory is that in order to sustain a positive growth rate of output per capita in the long run, there must be continual advances in technological knowledge" (Aghion and Howitt, 1998, p. 11).
Accumulation, productivity and technology: measurement and analysis of long term economic growth
1999
This paper provides a brief overview of the "state of the art" on research on the sources of long term economic growth. It is argued that, despite the enormous progress in development of the theory and empirics on long term economic growth, we are still not able to unambiguously distinguish between the determinants of growth. The distinction between accumulation, productivity and technology is a useful device to structure the debate, as the former two tend to emphasize the importance of investment and increased efficiency in use of resources, whereas the latter puts the contribution of invention and innovation change into the spotlight. However, the most powerful explanations of economic growth are those which combine these various aspects of growth with an explicit focus on historical, institutional and political factors in the growth process. To strengthen empirical research, the paper recommends greater attention for reconstruction of historical national accounts, the d...
Institute of European Studies Working Paper Series, 2005
Over the past decade much has been published on the contribution of information and communication technology (ICT) to economic growth. In an attempt to find parallel historical evidence, several scholars have attempted to review the contribution of other general purpose technologies (notably steam and electricity) to output and productivity growth. Most of these contributions have had a national focus on the United States and for a limited number of European countries (for example, Finland, Sweden, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom).