Technology, Growth, and Development: An Induced Innovation Perspective - Hardcover

Ruttan, Vernon W.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0195118715 ISBN 13: 9780195118711

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2000

Synopsis

Technology, Growth, and Development uniquely presents the complexities of technical and institutional change on the foundation of modern growth theory. The author shows how the rates and directions of technical change are induced by changes in competitive funding and institutional innovations in the modern research university and industrial laboratory. In turn, technical change itself becomes a powerful source of institutional change. Organized by the author in four parts, the first-Productivity and Economic Growth-gives specific reasons for the slowing of productivity growth in the United States and other leading industrial countries during the last quarter of the twentieth century. In Part II-Sources of Technical Change-the author examines a host of economic factors that influence invention and innovation; the rate and direction of institutional change; and the adoption, diffusion, and transfer of technology. In Part III-Technical Innovation and Industrial Change-he traces the sources and impact of technical change in five strategically important industries: agriculture, electric power, chemical, computer, and biotechnology. The final section, Part IV-Technology Policy-evaluates the role of technical change in international competition, the role of science and technology in environmental policy, and the evolution of U.S. science and technology policy. Technology, Growth, and Development makes few mathematical demands on students, and will be used in courses within economics departments as well as management and public affairs. In addition, it will be required reading for professional economists, managers, and policy analysts at all levels.

About this title

About the Author

Vernon W. Ruttan is at University of Minnesota.

Review

"This big book is the product of a lifetime of serious and creative scholarship. I can think of no other scholar who has worked more systematically, and with greater dedication, to illuminate the multiple and sometimes elusive aspects of technological change than Vernon Ruttan."--Nathan
Rosenberg, Department of Economics, Stanford University

"Vernon Ruttan has written an encyclopedic volume on the role of technology in economic growth in both industrialized and poorer countries. The book contains a superb integration of the recent insights of new growth theory and detailed studies of the process of technological innovation at the
microeconomic level. The extraordinary scope of the volume ranges from new insights on the extent to which the U.S. consumer price index is affected by technical change to a detailed examination of the development of the microprocessor. Intensive studies of developments in chemical industries,
agricultural technology, and dozens of other industries provide the empirical underpinning for a masterful discussion of induced innovation. This book will be the starting point for all researchers interested in further studies in the area." --Howard Pack, The Wharton School, The University of
Pennsylvania

"Worthy of a Nobel Prize."-Rondo Cameron, William Rand Kenan University Professor Emeritus, Emory University

"A necessary reading for all students interested in economic development."--Peter Chow, The City College of New York

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0195118715
• ISBN 13: 9780195118711
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 672