Directed technological change: a history and a critical agenda

Daniel Susskind

Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 2025, vol. 41, issue 2, 313-325

Abstract: In this article, I explore the idea of ‘directed technological change’. Although it has its intellectual origins in early twentieth-century economic thought, the idea was largely ignored in the decades that followed. This only changed recently, when contemporary economists adopted and reworked the idea, applying it to some of our great challenges: from climate change to the impact of AI on work. In what follows I explore the history of the idea, set out its modern theoretical form and practical relevance, before closing with important limitations: technical, political, and moral.

Keywords: directed technical change; technological progress; climate change; AI (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/oxrep/graf025 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
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:oup:oxford:v:41:y:2025:i:2:p:313-325.

Access Statistics for this article

Oxford Review of Economic Policy is currently edited by Christopher Adam

More articles in Oxford Review of Economic Policy from Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().