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Bottom-up or top-down? The origins of the Industrial Revolution

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  • MOKYR, JOEL

Abstract

Was technological progress during and after the Industrial Revolution top-down or bottom-up? The technology that created the great inventions was driven by a combination of pathbreaking ideas and the dexterity and skills of trained artisans. While those forms of human capital were quite different, they both came out of small elites of intellectuals and craftsmen, what are rapidly becoming known as “upper-tail human capital.” I analyze the institutions that drove the incentives for both, and show that they came together to produce the Great Enrichment. These incentives were both material and social: between 1500 and 1700, the search for financial security and reputation cooperated in producing a unique institutional environment in which the elites in Western Europe produced the three legged-stool of European modernity: the Reformation, the Scientific Revolution, and the Enlightenment. Once these three movements had succeeded, the foundation for modern economic growth had been laid.

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  • Mokyr, Joel, 2018. "Bottom-up or top-down? The origins of the Industrial Revolution," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(6), pages 1003-1024, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:jinsec:v:14:y:2018:i:06:p:1003-1024_00
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    Cited by:

    1. Pelin AKYOL & Çağla ÖKTEN, 2024. "The role of religion in female labor supply: evidence from two Muslim denominations," JODE - Journal of Demographic Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 90(1), pages 116-153, March.
    2. Clark, Gregory & Cummins, Neil, 2022. "Assortative mating and the Industrial Revolution: England, 1754-2021," Economic History Working Papers 114608, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
    3. Ugo M. Gragnolati & Alessandro Nuvolari, 2023. "Innovation, localized externalities, and the British Industrial Revolution, 1700-1850," LEM Papers Series 2023/26, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    4. Bakeev, M., 2020. "Institutional and cultural research directions in development economics: Assumptions on agent motivation as a source of disagreement," Journal of the New Economic Association, New Economic Association, vol. 46(2), pages 139-156.
    5. Michael Fritsch & Michael Wyrwich, 2023. "Entrepreneurship in the Long-Run: Empirical Evidence and Historical Mechanisms," Foundations and Trends(R) in Entrepreneurship, now publishers, vol. 19(1), pages 1-125, January.

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