Innovation waves and technological transitions: Sweden, 1909-2016

Josef Taalbi

No 196, Lund Papers in Economic History from Lund University, Department of Economic History

Abstract: There are important unresolved questions about long-term trends of in- novation activity and the nature of the interplay between innovation and economic development and transformation. This study explores the promise of a literature-based innovation output indicator, constructed for the Swedish engineering industry, 1909-2016. The findings suggest a long-run increasing trend in innovations per capita. Meanwhile, product innovations have also become more complex and it is suggested that crude innovation counts underestimate the long-run innovation performance. In order to analyse innovation and economic development across different frequencies, the study uses a wavelet decomposition approach. The results suggest that innovation activity has surged in periods of intense industry rationalization and struc- tural crisis (1930s, 1970s and 2010s) and that such pulses were intimately connected to the second and third industrial revolutions.

Keywords: Innovation; Wavelet analysis; Technological systems (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N13 O14 O31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 31 pages
Date: 2019-03-20
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-gro, nep-his, nep-hme, nep-ino, nep-sbm and nep-tid
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:luekhi:0196

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