Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Part I Views of technical progress
- Part II Some significant characteristics of technologies
- 3 Technological interdependence in the American economy
- 4 The effects of energy supply characteristics on technology and economic growth
- 5 On technological expectations
- 6 Learning by using
- 7 How exogenous is science?
- Part III Market determinants of technological innovation
- Part IV Technology transfer and leadership: the international context
- Index
3 - Technological interdependence in the American economy
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 January 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Part I Views of technical progress
- Part II Some significant characteristics of technologies
- 3 Technological interdependence in the American economy
- 4 The effects of energy supply characteristics on technology and economic growth
- 5 On technological expectations
- 6 Learning by using
- 7 How exogenous is science?
- Part III Market determinants of technological innovation
- Part IV Technology transfer and leadership: the international context
- Index
Summary
One of the things that all knowledgeable people supposedly “know” is that technological change has been the critical variable in accounting for the spectacular long-term growth of the American economy and our resulting present affluence. And yet, when scholars of a quantitative turn of mind have attempted to link the story of the growing productivity of the American economy to some of the better-known facts and landmarks of our technological history, that story has turned out to be a remarkably difficult one to tell.
There are many reasons why this has been a difficult exercise. It is, for one thing, an extremely complicated methodological matter to separate out the contribution of technological change from other changes in human behavior, motivation, and social organization. Although this is generally realized, there is less awareness that the productivity contribution of a new technology is also linked to other, less obvious technological forces, to which I will shortly return. Moreover, the public image of technology has been decisively shaped by popular writers who have been mesmerized by the dramatic story of a small number of major inventions–steam engines, cotton gins, railroads, automobiles, penicillin, radios, computers, and so on. In addition, in the telling of the story, overwhelming emphasis is placed on the specific sequence of events leading up to the decisive actions of a single individual.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Inside the Black BoxTechnology and Economics, pp. 55 - 80Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1983
- 4
- Cited by