EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

Transitions and revolutions

.

Chapter 2 in A History of the Global Economy, 2018, pp 22-38 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter considers what it is that drives historical change, change which is the default condition of all human societies. It highlights a major source and driver of such change, human innovation. It discusses general-purpose principles, which identify the needs of humans, and general-purpose technologies (GPTs), which assist human to better satisfy their needs and wants. Such GPTs potentially have a transformative impact on the economy. There is a definition of what is a GPT, establishing its main characteristics, notably its significant and widespread linkage effects. At the core of the chapter is a listing of transformative GPTS, classified according to the phases through which the economy moves and emphasising those initiating phase movement. There is also a discussion of how differing factor supplies and prices influence the nature and direction of technological change. The chapter concludes with an approximate dating of economic phase entry.

Keywords: Development Studies; Economics and Finance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.elgaronline.com/view/9781788971973.00008.xml (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 503 Service Temporarily Unavailable

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:elg:eechap:18481_2

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.e-elgar.com

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Chapters from Edward Elgar Publishing
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Darrel McCalla ().

 
Page updated 2025-03-31
Handle: RePEc:elg:eechap:18481_2