Product Description

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'? These are some of the questions addressed in this authoritative analysis of 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 a well-informed, highly topical, and persuasive study of interest across all the social sciences.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #433819 in Books
• Published on: 2002-03-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 432 pages

About the Author
Chris Freeman is Emeritus Professor at the University of Sussex and was the founder and former Director of SPRU (1966-81). SPRU has become one of the leading world centres for research on technical change. After war-time service in the Manchester Regiment and experience in market research, Chris Freeman became a Research Fellow at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (1959-66), and later a Visiting Professor at the University of Limburg, Maastricht.