Technical Change And Economic Theory

A sustained critique of mainstream economic theory and discussion of the development of an alternative. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

In this wide ranging exposition of the various economic theories of technological change, Stanislaw Gomulka relates them to rates of growth experienced by different economies in both the short and the long term. Analysis of countries as diverse as Japan, the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom demonstrates that there is an interdependence between technological change and the institutional and cultural characteristics of different countries, which can have a profound effect on their rates of growth. All of the major, relevant models are discussed, including those of Kuznets and Phelps, but throughout the emphasis is on the creation of a unified theoretical framework to help explain the impact of technological progress on both a micro and a macro scale.

Theory of Technical Change and Economic Invariance: Application of Lie Groups presents the economic invariance problems observable behavior under general transformations such as taste change or technical change. This book covers a variety of topics in economic theory, ranging from the analysis of production functions to the general recoverability problem of optimal dynamic behavior. Organized into nine chapters, this book begins with an overview of the theory of observable behavior by analyzing the invariant relationships among economic variables. This text then examines the Lie group theory which provides one of the most efficient methods of studying invariance properties. Other chapters consider the analysis of exogenous technical change, a process partly due to dynamic market forces of supply and demand. This book discusses as well the topics closely related to parametric changes under Lie groups and related transformations. The final chapter deals with mathematical foundations of the theory of observable market behavior. This book is a valuable resource for economists.

An area of neglect in much of current economic theory has been its lack of attention to the impact of technological innovation on the structure and behavior of firms and the market. This book is a comprehensive study of the economic implications of technological change for three primary institutions: the firm, the market, and the civil sector.

This book contains the most sustained and serious attack on mainstream, neoclassical economics in more than forty years. Nelson and Winter focus their critique on the basic question of how firms and industries change overtime. They marshal significant objections to the fundamental neoclassical assumptions of profit maximization and market equilibrium, which they find ineffective in the analysis of technological innovation and the dynamics of competition among firms. To replace these assumptions, they borrow from biology the concept of natural selection to construct a precise and detailed evolutionary theory of business behavior. They grant that films are motivated by profit and engage in search for ways of improving profits, but they do not consider them to be profit maximizing. Likewise, they emphasize the tendency for the more profitable firms to drive the less profitable ones out of business, but they do not focus their analysis on hypothetical states of industry equilibrium. The results of their new paradigm and analytical framework are impressive. Not only have they been able to develop more coherent and powerful models of competitive firm dynamics under conditions of growth and technological change, but their approach is compatible with findings in psychology and other social sciences. Finally, their work has important implications for welfare economics and for government policy toward industry.

On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the Postal Payments System, the former Director General of the Dutch Post Office asked Professor Heertje to write a book on Economics and Technical Development, and this is the English translation of the original Dutch text. This is basically a non-mathematical book on the subject, which deals with the history of economic thought on technical development, the history of technology, production theories and the significance of technical development for economic growth, monopoly power, and economic policy. Informed by the author's knowledge of the original literature, and his proficiency in its five languages, the terminology is exact, the exposition is clear, this text should bridge English-speaking and Continental European thought on this subject.

Recently, evolutionary theories of economic and technological change have attracted a considerable amount of attention which reflects the problems encountered by mainstream analysis of dynamic phenomena and quantitative change. This book, originally published in 1991, develops the debate and draws on the concepts of evolutionary biology, nonequilibrium thermodynamics, systems and organization theory. While recognizing that new technology is not the cause of quantitative change, the editors claim it should play a more central role in economic theory and policy. At the same time, the ground is laid for a more generalized concept of innovation and experimentation and their relation to routine activities. The book is intended for economists.

Pt. 1. The ingredients -- pt. 2. The governance of localised technological knowledge -- pt. 3. The introduction of localised technological change.