Broadberry, Stephen and Jong, Herman de. (2000) Technology and productivity in historical perspective : introduction. European Review of Economic History, Vol.4 (No.2). pp. 115-119. ISSN 1361-4916

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Abstract

This collection of articles is the result of a workshop organised to consider technology and productivity in historical perspective, drawing in particular on the evolutionary approach. The workshop was organised by the N.W. Posthumus Institute for Economic and Social History, the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIAS) and the Groningen Growth and Development Centre. Economic historians with backgrounds in both evolutionary and neoclassical traditions came together in the pleasant surroundings of the NIAS at Wassenaar in May 1999, to re-examine technology and productivity experience in Europe since the Industrial Revolution. An important focus was provided by recent theoretical developments, which have seen the incorporation of many evolutionary ideas into mainstream economics. Until quite recently, there seemed to be little common ground between approaches to technology and growth based on Solow's (1956) neoclassical growth model and Nelson and Winter's (1982) evolutionary, neo-Schumpeterian model. Now, however, the evolutionary approach has entered the mainstream through the work of writers such as Grossman and Helpman (1991) and Aghion and Howitt (1998) on endogenous innovation, and David (1985) and Arthur (1994) on path dependence. This is a particularly welcome development from the perspective of the European Historical Economics Society, the sponsors of the European Review of Economic History, holding out the promise of a genuinely ‘historical economics’.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions T Technology > T Technology (General)
Divisions:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Economics
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Technology -- Economic aspects -- Europe, Industrial productivity -- Europe -- History, Economics -- Europe -- History, Economics historians, Europe -- Economic conditions
Journal or Publication Title:	European Review of Economic History
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
ISSN:	1361-4916
Date:	August 2000
Volume:	Vol.4
Number:	No.2
Page Range:	pp. 115-119
Identification Number:	10.1017/S1361491600000010
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Access rights to Published version:	Open Access
References:	AGHION, P. and HOWITT, P. (1998). Endogenous Growth Theory. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. ARTHUR, W. B. (1994). Increasing Returns and Path Dependence in the Economy. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. BREZIS, E. S., KRUGMAN, P. R. and TSIDDON, D. (1993). Leapfrogging in international competition: a theory of cycles in national technological leadership. American Economic Review 83, pp. 1211-19. DAVID, P. A. (1985). Clio and the economics of QWERTY. American Economic Review Proceedings 75, pp. 332-7. DAVID, P. A. (1990). The dynamo and the computer: an historical perspective on the modern productivity paradox. American Economic Review Proceedings 80, pp. 355–61. GOLDIN, C. and KATZ, L. (1996). Technology, skill, and the wage structure: insights from the past. American Economic Review Proceeedings 86, 252–7. GROSSMAN, G. M. and HELPMAN, E. (1991). Innovation and Growth in the Global Economy. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. MOKYR, J. (1990). The Lever of Riches: Technological Creativity and Economic Progress. Oxford: Oxford University Press. NELSON, R. R. and WINTER, S. G. (1982). An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ROMER, P. M. (1990). Endogenous Technological Change. Journal of Political Economy 78, pp. S71–S101. SOLOW, R. M. (1956). A contribution to the theory of economic growth. Quarterly Journal of Economics 70, pp. 65–94.
URI:	http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/839

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