Organizations and Markets

General-Purpose Technologies and Long-Term Economic Growth

28 August 2006 at 10:06 am Peter G. Klein Leave a comment

| Peter Klein |

Another interesting book review from EH.Net, this time by Joel Mokyr on Economic Transformations: General Purpose Technologies and Long-Term Economic Growth by Richard G. Lipsey, Kenneth I. Carlaw, and Clifford T. Bekar.

The book is hard to summarize because it is unusually rich and diverse. It contains long discussions of technological change, its nature, sources, and consequences. Lipsey maintains that technology is at the heart of modern economic growth and asks — once again — what the sources of Western success are. Among other things, the book also treats at length the economics of technological change, the history of science, and population dynamics. It is part grand synthesis, part textbook, part statement of the author’s idiosyncratic views, and throughout an excellent read — informed, curious, unafraid of being unconventional or politically incorrect.

And:

Lipsey joins a large number of economists who, when thinking about the long run, feel that evolutionary models are more appropriate than standard neoclassical ones.

Hopefully, as if responding to Nicolai’s plea, Lipsey et al. also discuss some policy implications of their evolutionary perspective.

Entry filed under: - Klein -, Business/Economic History, Institutions.