Factor prices and induced technical change in the industrial revolution

Ravshonbek Otojanov, Roger Fouquet and Brigitte Granville

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: Using historical data for the 1700–1914 period, this paper analyses the nature and direction of technical change in Britain. The evidence in this paper indicates that, over this long period, labour-saving technology adoption was a major response to changes in relative factor prices, thus supporting the hypothesis that ‘induced innovation’ was a major driver of technical change during the British industrial revolution. Labour saving was made possible and sustained by capital-augmenting and energy-augmenting technical change coupled with continuous capital accumulation and abundant energy supplies. This process placed the British economy on a higher capital–labour ratio equilibrium, and was the primary force driving sustained productivity growth, which further raised wages and living standards.

Keywords: factor-saving technical change; induced innovation; industrial revolution; Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics; and the ESRC Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy (CCCEP); ES/R009708/1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N73 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 25 pages
Date: 2023-05-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eff, nep-ene, nep-gro and nep-his
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published in Economic History Review, 1, May, 2023, 76(2), pp. 599 - 623. ISSN: 0013-0117

Downloads: (external link)
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/114978/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Factor prices and induced technical change in the industrial revolution (2023)
Working Paper: Factor prices and induced technical change in the Industrial Revolution (2018)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:114978

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library LSE Library Portugal Street London, WC2A 2HD, U.K.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by LSERO Manager ().