As Time Goes By: From the Industrial Revolutions to the Information RevolutionHow can we best understand the impact of revolutionary technologies on the business cycle, the economy, and society? Why is economics meaningless without history and without an understanding of institutional and technical change? Does the 'new economy' mean the 'end of history'?an we best understand the impact of revolutionary technologies on business organization and the business cycle? These are some of the questions addressed in this authoritative analysis of modern economic growth from the Industrial Revolution to the 'New Economy' of today. Chris Freeman has been one of the foremost researchers on innovation for a long time and his colleague Francisco Louçã is an outstanding historian of economic theory and an analyst of econometric models and methods. Together they chart the history of five technological revolutions: water-powered mechanization, steam-powered mechanization, electrification, motorization, and computerization. They demonstrate the necessity to take account of politics, culture, organizational change, and entrepreneurship, as well as science and technology in the analysis of economic growth. This is an well-informed, highly topical, and persuasive study of interest across all the social sciences. |
Contents
| 3 | |
A Story of the Economic Historians Assessment | 9 |
Schumpeters Plea for Reasoned History | 42 |
A New Approach to History and Statistics | 66 |
The Strange Attraction of Tides and Waves | 93 |
A Theory of Reasoned History | 123 |
Technical Change and Long Waves in Economic | 139 |
The Age of Cotton Iron | 153 |
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Common terms and phrases
Adam Smith American analysis argued automobile became Britain British business cycle canals capital capitalist Carlota Perez causal cent Chapter cliometrics coal concept consequence constellation continuity thesis core input cotton countries Crafts cultural depression described diffusion discussed dominant downswing dynamic early econometric economic growth economic history economists electric endogenous equilibrium Ewijk exogenous explanation factors firms Fogel Fordist framework German historians important Industrial Revolution influence infrastructure innovations institutional investment iron Kondratiev wave Kuznets labour long cycles long wave machines major manufacturing Marx mass production Methodenstreit methods movements neoclassical economics nineteenth century nomic organic organizational output paradigm patents period political problem profits railways regime role Schumpeter Schumpeter's Second World War Section sectors social society Source statistical steam engines steel structural change Table techniques theoretical theory tion trade trend United upswing variables