IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/ereveh/v4y2000i02p121-146_00.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Technology generation, technology use and economic growth

Author

Listed:
  • TUNZELMANN, G. N. VON

Abstract

Technological change is often measured by economists and economic historians through productivity growth, but this article argues that technological change and productivity change are conceptually different. This proposition is demonstrated by considering the diffusion of technologies first within industries, and second across industries. In both cases, economic growth reaches higher levels when the technology becomes diffused, not when it is being generated via major technological breakthroughs. This emerges through high ratios of patents (as a measure of technological change) to industrial production when countries undergo their industrial revolutions. Finally I compare across countries, to show that leader countries developed the technologies before they developed education systems to extend them, whereas some catching-up countries probably drew on their depth of human capital to absorb new technologies from the leaders.

Suggested Citation

  • Tunzelmann, G. N. Von, 2000. "Technology generation, technology use and economic growth," European Review of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 4(2), pages 121-146, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:ereveh:v:4:y:2000:i:02:p:121-146_00
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S1361491600000022/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Foreman-Peck, James, 2011. "The Western European marriage pattern and economic development," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 48(2), pages 292-309, April.
    2. V. L. Tambovtsev, 2019. "Institutions-technologies interaction and economic growth," Journal of New Economy, Ural State University of Economics, vol. 20(2), pages 55-70, May.
    3. Makiko Hino & Mototsugu Fukushige, 2014. "Catching up and falling behind in technological progress: the experience of the textile and chemical industries in Italy between 1904 and 1937," Discussion Papers in Economics and Business 14-14, Osaka University, Graduate School of Economics.
    4. Erik Hornung, 2012. "Human Capital, Technology Diffusion, and Economic Growth - Evidence from Prussian Census Data," ifo Beiträge zur Wirtschaftsforschung, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, number 46.
    5. Becker, Sascha O. & Hornung, Erik & Woessmann, Ludger, 2009. "Catch Me If You Can: Education and Catch-up in the Industrial Revolution," IZA Discussion Papers 4556, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Palazuelos, Enrique & Fernández, Rafael, 2009. "Demand, employment, and labour productivity in the European economies," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 1-15, March.
    7. von Tunzelmann, Nick & Wang, Qing, 2007. "Capabilities and production theory," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 192-211, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cup:ereveh:v:4:y:2000:i:02:p:121-146_00. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/ere .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.