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Scaling heuristics shape technology! Should economic theory take notice?

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  • Sidney G. Winter

Abstract

In some economics textbooks production theory is developed axiomatically. The “divisibility axiom” presents a bold affront to realism. It distorts the static theory and forecloses some potential encounters with technological change. The article reviews propositions about geometrical scaling that have long been recognized as relevant to the realities studied in many fields, including industrial organization economics. The article concludes by sketching a program of reform for production theory that would make connections to Dosi's concepts of technological paradigms and trajectories (Dosi, 1982 ). Copyright 2008 , Oxford University Press.

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  • Sidney G. Winter, 2008. "Scaling heuristics shape technology! Should economic theory take notice?," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 17(3), pages 513-531, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:indcch:v:17:y:2008:i:3:p:513-531
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/icc/dtn015
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    Cited by:

    1. Wilson, Charlie, 2012. "Up-scaling, formative phases, and learning in the historical diffusion of energy technologies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 81-94.
    2. Kristiaan Kerstens & Ignace Van de Woestyne, 2021. "Cost functions are nonconvex in the outputs when the technology is nonconvex: convexification is not harmless," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 305(1), pages 81-106, October.
    3. Giovanni Dosi, 2012. "Economic Coordination and Dynamics: Some Elements of an Alternative "Evolutionary" Paradigm," LEM Papers Series 2012/08, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    4. Funk, Jeffrey L. & Magee, Christopher L., 2015. "Rapid improvements with no commercial production: How do the improvements occur?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(3), pages 777-788.
    5. Markus Becker & Thorbjorn Knudsen, 2012. "Nelson and Winter Revisited," Chapters, in: Michael Dietrich & Jackie Krafft (ed.), Handbook on the Economics and Theory of the Firm, chapter 19, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    6. Dosi, Giovanni & Nelson, Richard R., 2010. "Technical Change and Industrial Dynamics as Evolutionary Processes," Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, in: Bronwyn H. Hall & Nathan Rosenberg (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 51-127, Elsevier.
    7. Ad van den Oord & Arjen van Witteloostuijn, 2018. "A multi-level model of emerging technology: An empirical study of the evolution of biotechnology from 1976 to 2003," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(5), pages 1-27, May.
    8. Bento, Nuno & Fontes, Margarida, 2019. "Emergence of floating offshore wind energy: Technology and industry," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 66-82.
    9. Ng, Pei-Sin & Funk, Jeffrey L., 2013. "When do new technologies become economically feasible? The case of three-dimensional television," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 22-31.
    10. Papachristos, George, 2017. "Diversity in technology competition: The link between platforms and sociotechnical transitions," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 291-306.

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