As Time Goes By: From the Industrial Revolutions to the Information Revolution

Chris Freeman · Francisco Louçã

helmi 2001 · OUP Oxford

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How can we best understand the impact of revolutionary technologies on the business cycle, the economy, and society? Why is economics meaningless without history and without an understanding of institutional and technical change? Does the 'new economy' mean the 'end of history'?an we best understand the impact of revolutionary technologies on business organization and the business cycle? These are some of the questions addressed in this authoritative analysis of modern economic growth from the Industrial Revolution to the 'New Economy' of today. Chris Freeman has been one of the foremost researchers on innovation for a long time and his colleague Francisco Louçã is an outstanding historian of economic theory and an analyst of econometric models and methods. Together they chart the history of five technological revolutions: water-powered mechanization, steam-powered mechanization, electrification, motorization, and computerization. They demonstrate the necessity to take account of politics, culture, organizational change, and entrepreneurship, as well as science and technology in the analysis of economic growth. This is an well-informed, highly topical, and persuasive study of interest across all the social sciences.

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Chris Freeman is Emeritus Professor at SPRU, University of Sussex. After studying at the London School of Economics, he later took up the position of Research Fellow at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, London (1959-66) before becoming Director of the Science Policy Research Unit at the University of Susex (1966-81). His most recent position was Visiting Professor at the University of Limburg in Maastricht (1986-96). He is the author of numerous books including 'The Economics of Industrial Innovation' (with L. Soete, Pinter, 1997); 'Work for All or Mass Unemployment: Computerised Technical Change into the 21st Century' (with L. Soete, Pinter, 1994); and 'Technology and Economic Performance: Lessons from Japan' (Pinter, 1987). Francisco Louçã is Professor of Economics in the Faculty of Economics and Management at the ISEG, Lisbon. He obtained his Ph.D. in Economics at the University of Lisbon under the supervision of Chris Freeman, subsequently publishing his thesis in both English and Portuguese ('Turbulence in Economics', Edward Elgar 1997). In 1999 he was elected Member of Parliament in Portugal, and serves in the Economic and Budgetary Commission.