Lessons for Today from Past Periods of Rapid Technological Change

Aránzazu Guillán Montero and David Le Blanc

Working Papers from United Nations, Department of Economics and Social Affairs

Abstract: We provide a history of past periods of rapid technological change starting from the Industrial Revolution continuing up to today. We find that it takes decades for technological breakthroughs to make a difference to the aggregate economy. The reason for this delay is that to realize the value of these breakthroughs requires complementary investments. Second, for good or for bad, government has played an important role in facilitating these transitions through both investments in physical infrastructure and legal reforms. We also emphasize that because technological breakthroughs are difficult to predict, the responses of governments are necessarily improvisational.

Keywords: automation; technological anxiety; Industrial Revolution (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N10 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 38 pages
Date: 2019-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his, nep-hpe and nep-pay
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:une:wpaper:158

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