General purpose technologies and the Industrial Revolution

Arbeitspapier

Did breakthroughs in core processes during the Industrial Revolution tend to generate further innovations in downstream technologies? Here a theoretical model examines the effect of a political shock on a non-innovating society in which there is high potential willingness to cooperate. The result is regional specialization in the innovation process by degree of cooperation. Tests with a zero-inflated Poisson specification indicate that 116 important innovations between 1700 and 1849 may be grouped into three categories: (1) General Purpose Technologies (GPTs) tended to be generated in large states with standardized languages following transition to pluralistic political systems; (2) GPTs in turn generated spillovers for their regions in technologies where cooperation was necessary to integrate distinct fields of expertise; (3) however, GPTs discouraged downstream innovation in their regions where such direct cooperation was not required.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Papers on Economics and Evolution ; No. 1011

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft
• Subject: general purpose technologies ; Industrial Revolution ; innovation ; cooperation ; spillovers ; Industrialisierung ; Technologie ; Räumliche Innovationsdiffusion ; Spillover-Effekt ; Regionale Arbeitsteilung ; Schätzung ; Welt

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Dudley, Leonard
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Max Planck Institute of Economics
• (where): Jena
• (when): 2010

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/57524
• URN: urn:nbn:de:gbv:27-20110628-135755-6
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET