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QWERTY and the search for optimality

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  • Kay, Neil M

Abstract

This paper shows how one of the developers of QWERTY continued to use the trade secret that underlay its development to seek further efficiency improvements after its introduction. It provides further evidence that this was the principle used to design QWERTY in the first place and adds further weight to arguments that QWERTY itself was a consequence of creative design and an integral part of a highly efficient system rather than an accident of history. This further serves to raise questions over QWERTY's forced servitude as 'paradigm case' of inferior standard in the path dependence literature. The paper also shows how complementarities in forms of intellectual property rights protection played integral roles in the development of QWERTY and the search for improvements on it, and also helped effectively conceal the source of the efficiency advantages that QWERTY helped deliver.

Suggested Citation

  • Kay, Neil M, 2013. "QWERTY and the search for optimality," SIRE Discussion Papers 2013-103, Scottish Institute for Research in Economics (SIRE).
    • Handle: RePEc:edn:sirdps:528
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10943/528
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Neil Kay, 2013. "Lock-in, path dependence, and the internationalization of QWERTY," Working Papers 1310, University of Strathclyde Business School, Department of Economics.
    2. Arora, Ashish, 1997. "Patents, licensing, and market structure in the chemical industry," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 26(4-5), pages 391-403, December.
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    4. Lewin, Peter, 2001. "The Market Process and the Economics of QWERTY: Two Views," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 14(1), pages 65-96, March.
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    7. Wesley M. Cohen & Richard R. Nelson & John P. Walsh, 2000. "Protecting Their Intellectual Assets: Appropriability Conditions and Why U.S. Manufacturing Firms Patent (or Not)," NBER Working Papers 7552, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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    11. Jean‐Philippe Vergne & Rodolphe Durand, 2010. "The Missing Link Between the Theory and Empirics of Path Dependence: Conceptual Clarification, Testability Issue, and Methodological Implications," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(4), pages 736-759, June.
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