Abstract
Although it was by no means the case 20 years ago, there is now general agreement among economists that technological change is the crucial element in long-run economic growth in the world. Since the Industrial Revolution in the second half of the 18th century, the application of new technologies, by means of investment in new production equipment, has led to a significant increase in output per worker, and per head of population. In addition to this ‘quantitative’ aspect of the growth of modern capitalism, technology has transformed the economy (and society in a broader context) in a qualitative way. This paper will present an exclusively quantitative interpretation of growth, but the reader should bear in mind that the process through which technology reshapes the economy cannot be conceived as operating on one dimension only.
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This research has been made possible by a fellowship from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. I thank Hugo Hollanders for assistance in the collection of data.
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Verspagen, B. (1999). A Global Perspective on Technology and Economic Performance, and the Implications for the Post-Socialist Countries. In: Dyker, D.A., Radosevic, S. (eds) Innovation and Structural Change in Post-Socialist Countries: A Quantitative Approach. NATO ASI Series, vol 20. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4463-6_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4463-6_2
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