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What Was the Industrial Revolution?

Author

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  • Robert E. Lucas Jr.

Abstract

At some point in the first half of the 19th century per capita GDP in the United Kingdom and the United States began to grow at something like one to two percent per year and have continued to do so up to the present. Now incomes in many economies routinely grow at 2 percent per year and some grow at much higher “catch-up” rates. These events surely represent a historical watershed, separating a traditional world in which incomes of ordinary working people remained low and fairly stable over the centuries from a modern world where incomes increase for every new generation. This paper uses Gary Becker’s theory of a “quantity/quality trade-off,” consistent both with Malthusian population dynamics (quantity) and with demographic transition (quality), to identify a limited set of forces that were central to this revolution.
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Suggested Citation

  • Robert E. Lucas Jr., 2018. "What Was the Industrial Revolution?," Journal of Human Capital, University of Chicago Press, vol. 12(2), pages 182-203.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:jhucap:doi:10.1086/697243
    DOI: 10.1086/697243
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    Cited by:

    1. Roger Koppl & Abigail Devereaux & Jim Herriot & Stuart Kauffman, 2018. "A Simple Combinatorial Model of World Economic History," Papers 1811.04502, arXiv.org.
    2. Gillman, Max, 2021. "Steps in industrial development through human capital deepening," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    3. Peralta, Catarina & Gil, Pedro Mazeda, 2025. "Automation, education, and population: Dynamic effects in an OLG growth and fertility model," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 234(C).
    4. Nur Hayati Abd Rahman & Shafinar Ismail & Khairunnisa Abd Samad & Bestari Dwi Handayani & Yozi Aulia Rahman & Wijang Sakitri, 2022. "The Effects of Regulatory Performance on the Debt–Growth Relationship: Cases of Upper-Middle-Income Economies," Economies, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-14, September.
    5. Joseph Connors & James Gwartney & Hugo Montesinos‐Yufa, 2020. "The rise and fall of worldwide income inequality, 1820–2035," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 87(1), pages 216-244, July.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • N00 - Economic History - - General - - - General
    • O11 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • O40 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - General

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