Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Industrial Dynamics pp 55–83Cite as

The Supply Side: Technology and History

  • Chapter

Part of the book series: Studies in Industrial Organization ((SIOR,volume 10))

Abstract

It is my belief that the biggest weakness in mainstream economics throughout the twentieth century has been the lack of an adequate specification of the supply side. The demand side has been elegantly handled, both at the micro level of utility theory and consumer behavior (see for example the survey by Deaton and Muellbauer, 1980) and at the macro level of Keynesian dynamics. On the supply side there has been detailed and extensive investigation of the supply of productive factors, but little commensurate work on the supply of output. Undergraduates are taught that supply curves are normally upward-sloping (though they may not be in the long run, or under extraordinary conditions) and that production functions are normally convex; but they would be hard-pressed to give any more fundamental account of why the curves should lie at particular levels, why their concavity should take particular forms, and so on. So would many of their teachers.

I am grateful to the participants at the Conference on New Issues in Industrial Economics at Case Western Reserve, June 1987, for their comments and particularly to Erik Dahmén for a thorough discussion and Bo Carlsson for extensive editorial advice.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   169.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   219.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD   219.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Aglietta, M., 1976. A Theory of Capitalist Regulation; the US Experience. London & New York: Verso Books (1987).

    Google Scholar 

  • Aitken, H.G.F., 1976. Syntony and Spark: the Origin of Radio. New York: John Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aitken, H.G.F., 1985. The Continuous Wave: Technology and American Radio, 1900–1932. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Allen, R.C., 1977. “The Peculiar Productivity History of American Blast Furnaces, 1840–1913.” Journal of Economic History, 37(3), 605–633.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Allen, R.C., 1979. “International Competition in Iron and Steel, 1850–1913.” Journal of Economic History, 39 (4), 911–937.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Allen, R.C., 1981. “Entrepreneurship and Technical Progress in the North-east Coast Pig Iron Industry, 1850–1913.” Research in Economic History, 6.

    Google Scholar 

  • Amstead, B.J., P.F. Ostwald & M.L. Begeman, 1977. Manufacturing Processes, 7th edition. New York: John Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aoki, M., 1986. “Horizontal vs. Vertical Information Structure of the Firm.” American Economic Review, 76 (4), 971–983.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arrow, K.J., 1962. “The Economic Implications of Learning by Doing.” Review of Economic Studies, 29 (2), 155–173.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bell, R.M. & D. Scott-Kemmis, 1985. “Who Learned What by Doing What?: A Re-examination of `Learning by Doing’ in the Airframe and Shipbuilding Industries.” Science Policy Research Unit mimeo.

    Google Scholar 

  • Belussi, F., 1987. “Benetton: The Innovative Potential of Traditional Sectors.” Science Policy Research Unit Occasional Paper No. 25.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berg, M., 1985. The Age of Manufactures, 1700–1820. London: Fontana Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blackburn, P., R. Coombs & K. Green, 1985. Technology, Economic Growth and the Labour Process. Basingstoke & London: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Braverman, H., 1974. Labor and Monopoly Capital. New York & London: Monthly Review Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cameron, R., 1967. Banking in the Early Stages of Industrialization: A Study in Comparative Economic History. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cameron, R., (ed.), 1972. Banking and Economic Development: Some Lessons of History. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Casson, M., 1982. The Entrepreneur: An Economic Theory. Oxford: Mart in Robertson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Casson, M., 1983. Economics of Unemployment: An Historical Perspective. Oxford: Mart in Robertson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Caves, R.E. & M.E. Porter, 1977. “From Entry Barriers to Mobility Barriers.” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 91 (2), 241–261.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • C.B.I. (Confederation of British Industries), 1987. Investing for Britain’s Future. London: CBI.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chandler, Jr., A.D., 1962. Strategy and Structure: Chapters in the History of American Industrial Enterprise. Cambridge, MA: M.I.T. Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, G., 1984. “Authority and Efficiency: the Labor Market and the Managerial Revolution of the Late Nineteenth Century.” Journal of Economic History, 44 (4), 1069–1083.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clark, K.B., R.H. Hayes & C. Lorenz, 1985. The Uneasy Alliance: Managing the Technology Productivity Dilemma. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • David, PA, 1985. Technical Choice, Innovation and Economic Growth: Essays on British and American Experience in the Nineteenth Century. Cambridge & New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deaton, A.S. & J. Muellbauer, 1980. Economics and Consumer Behaviour. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dosi, G., 1982. “Technological Paradigms and Technological Trajectories: the Determinants and Directions of Technical Change and the Transformation of the Economy.” Research Policy, 11(3); reprinted with amendments in C. Freeman (ed.), Long Waves in the World Economy. London and Dover, NH: Frances Pinter, 1984, Ch. 7.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dosi, G., 1984. Technical Change and Industrial Transformation: The Theory and an Application to the Semiconductor Industry, London: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dosi, G., C. Freeman, R. Nelson, G. Silverberg & L. Soete, 1988. Technical Change and Economic Theory. London: Frances Pinter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Elbaum, B. & W. Lazonick (eds.), 1986. The Decline of the British Economy. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eliasson, G. (ed.), 1978. A Micro-to-Macro Model of the Swedish Economy (Papers on the Swedish Model from the Symposium on Micro Simulation Methods in Stockholm, Sept. 19–22, 1977 ). Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International/IUI.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eliasson, G. (ed.),1985. The Firm and Financial Markets in the Swedish Micro-to-Macro Model - Theory, Model and Verification. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International/IUI.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ettlie, J., 1984. “Implementation Strategy for Discrete Parts Manufacturing Innovations,” in M. Warner (ed.), Microelectronics, Manpower and Society. Aldershot & Brookfield. VT: Gower.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ettlie, J., 1986. “The Implementation of Programmable Manufacturing Innovations.” Center for Social and Economic Issues, Industrial Technology Institute, University of Michigan, mimeo

    Google Scholar 

  • Franklin, B., 1751. “Observations concerning the Increase of Mankind, Peopling of Countries, etc.,” in A.H. Smyth (ed.), The Writings of Benjamin Franklin, vol. III: 1750–9. New York: Haskell House, 1907–1970.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fransman, M., 1985. “Conceptualising Technical Change in the Third World in the 1980s: an Interpretive Survey.” Journal of Development Studies, 21 (4), 572–652.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fransman, M. and K. King (eds.), 1984. Technological Capability in the Third World. London: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gold, B., 1981. “Technological Diffusion in Industry: Research Needs and Shortcomings.” Journal of Industrial Economics, 29 (3), 247–270.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gold, B., W.S. Peirce, G. Rosegger and M. Perlman, 1984. Technological Progress and Industrial Leadership: the Growth of the U.S. Steel Industry, 1900–1970. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books/D.C. Heath.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hayes, R.H. and W.S. Wheelwright, 1984. Restoring our Competitive Edge: Competing through Manufacturing. New York: John Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heiner, RA., 1983. “The Origin of Predictable Behavior.” American Economic Review, 73 (2), 560–595.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heiner, RA., 1988. “Imperfect Decisions and Routinized Production: Implications for Evolutionary Modeling and Inertial Technical Change,” in G. Dosi et al., 1988.

    Google Scholar 

  • Higgs, R., 1985. “Crisis, Bigger Government, and Ideological Change: Two Hypotheses on the Ratchet Phenomenon.” Explorations in Economic History, 22 (1), 1–28.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hughes, T.P., 1983. Networks of Power: Electrification in Western Society, 1800–1930. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kagono, T., I. Nonaka, K. Sakahibara, A. Okumura et al., 1985. Strategic vs. Evolutionary Management: a U.S.-Japan Comparison of Strategy and Organization. Amsterdam: North-Holland.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaplinsky, R., 1984. Automation: the Technology and Society. Harlow: Longman. Katz, M.L. and C. Shapiro, 1985. “Network Externalities, Competition and Compatibility.” American Economic Review, 75 (2), 424–440.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaplinsky, R., 1986a. “Technology Adoption in the Presence of Network Externalities.” Journal of Political Economy, 94 (4), 822–841.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kaplinsky, R., 1986b. “Product Compatibility Choice in a Market with Technological Progress.” Oxford Economic Papers, N.S. 38 Supplement, 146–165.

    Google Scholar 

  • Landes, D.S., 1986. “What Do Bosses Really Do?” Journal of Economic History, 46 (3), 585–624.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lazonick, W., 1981a. “Competition, Specialization, and Economic Decline.”Journal of Economic History,41(1), 31–38.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lazonick, W., 1981b. “Production Relations, Labor Productivity, and Choice of Technique: British and U.S. Cotton Spinning.” Journal of Economic History 41(3), 491–516.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lazonick, W. 1983. “Industrial Organization and Technological Change: the Decline of the British Cotton Industry. ” Business History Review, 57 (2), 195–236.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levin, R.C., 1982. “The Semiconductor Industry,” in R. R. Nelson (ed.), Government and Technical Progress: a Cross-Industry Analysis. New York: Pergamon Press, Ch. 2.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lockwood, W.W., 1954. The Economic Development of Japan: Growth and Structural Change, 1868–1938, rev, edition ( 1968 ). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lorenz, C., 1986. The Design Dimension: the New Competitive Weapon for Business. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCloskey, D., 1968. “Productivity Change in British Pig Iron, 1870–1939.” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 82 (2), 281–296.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCloskey, D., 1970. “Did Victorian Britain Fail?” Economic History Review,2nd series, 23(3), 446–459.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCloskey, D., 1973. Economic Maturity and Entrepreneurial Decline: British Iron and Steel1870–1913. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCloskey, D., 1983. “The Rhetoric of Economics.” Journal of Economic Literature, 21 (2), 481–517.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCloskey, D., 1985. The Rhetoric of Economics. Brighton: Wheatsheaf.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCloskey, D., and L. Sandberg, 1971. “From Damnation to Redemption: Judgements on the Late Victorian Entrepreneur.” Explorations in Economic History, 9 (1), 89–108.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Malthus, T.R., 1798. An Essay on the Principle of Population, as it Affects the Future Improvement of Society. London: J. Johnson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Malthus, T.R., 1803. An Essay on the Principle of Population, or a View of Its Past and Present Effects on Human Happiness. London: John Murray, reprinted by Ward Lock (London), 1890.

    Google Scholar 

  • Malthus, T.R., 1836. Principles of Political Economy Considered with a Yew to Their

    Google Scholar 

  • Practical Application,2nd edition. London: William Pickering (1st edition, John Murray, 1820).

    Google Scholar 

  • Marglin, S., 1976. “What Do Bosses Do?” in A. Gorz (ed.), The Division of Labor: the Labor Process and Class Struggle in Modem Capitalism. Hassocks: Harvester Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Matthews, R.C.O., 1986. “The Economics of Institutions and the Sources of Growth.” Economic Journal, 96 (384), 903–918.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nelson, R.R., 1962. “The Link between Science and Invention: the Case of the Transistor,” in R. R. Nelson (ed.), The Rate and Direction of Inventive Activity. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nelson, R.R. and S.G. Winter, 1982. An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Owen, R., 1821. Report to the County of Lanark. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Pelican Books (ed. V.A.C. Gatrell, 1970 ).

    Google Scholar 

  • Piore, M. and C. Sabel, 1984. The Second Industrial Divide: Possibilities for Progress. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pollak, R.A., 1985. “A Transaction Cost Approach to Families and Households.” Journal of Economic Literature, 23 (2), 581–608.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pollard, S., 1963. “Fixed Capital in the Industrial Revolution in Britain.” Journal of Economic History, 24 (3), 299–314.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pollard, S., (ed.), 1970. The Gold Standard and Employment Policies between the Wars. London: Methuen.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosenberg, N., 1963. “Technological Change in the Machine Tool Industry, 1840–1910.” Journal of Economic History, 23 (4), 414–446.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pollard, S., 1976. Perspectives on Technology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pollard, S., 1982. Inside the Black Box: Technology and Economics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sabel, C. and J. Zeitlin, 1985. “Historical Alternatives to Mass Production: Politics, Markets and Technology in Nineteenth-Century Industrialization.” Past & Present, 108.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sandberg, L., 1969. “American Rings and English Mules: The Role of Economic Rationality.” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 83 (1), 25–43.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sandberg, L., 1974. Lancashire in Decline: A Study in Entrepreneurship, Technology, and International Trade, Columbus: Ohio State University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saviotti P.P. and J.S. Metcalfe, 1984. “A Theoretical Approach to the Construction of Technological Output Indicators.” Research Policy, 13 (3), 141–152.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Saxonhouse, G. and G. Wright, 1984. “New Evidence on the Stubborn English Mule and the Cotton Industry.” Economic History Review, 2nd series, 37 (4), 507–519.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Simon, J., 1981. The Ultimate Resource. Oxford and Princeton, N.J.: Martin Robertson and Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, A., 1776. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, London: A. Strahan & T. Cadell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Soete, L. and N. von Tunzelmann, 1987. “Convergence of Technologies and the European Market for Telecommunications Equipment.” Mimeo, Conference on Technology and Government Policy in Computers and Communications, Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C., June, 4–5. Revised version, February 1988.

    Google Scholar 

  • Swann, G.M.P., 1986. Quality Innovation: An Economic Analysis of Rapid Improvement in Microelectronics Components, London: Frances Pinter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thomas, W.A., 1978. The Finance of British Industry, 1918–1976, London and New York: Methuen.

    Google Scholar 

  • Verhulst, P.F., 1838. “Notice sur le loi que la population suit dans son accroissement.” Correspondance mathématique et physique, 10, 113–121.

    Google Scholar 

  • Volterra, V., 1931. Leçons sur la théorie mathématique de la lutte pour la vie, Paris: Gauthiers-Villars

    Google Scholar 

  • von Tunzelmann, G.N., 1981. “Technical Progress during the Industrial Revolution,” in R.C. Floud and D.N. McCloskey (eds.), The Economic History of Britain since 1700, Vol.1: 1700–1860. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Ch. 8.

    Google Scholar 

  • von Tunzelmann, G.N., 1982. “Structural Change and Leading Sectors in British Manufacturing, 1907–1968,” in C.P. Kindleberger and G. di Tella (eds.), Economics in the Long View: Essays in Honour of W.W. Rostow, Vol. 3. London: Macmillan, Ch. 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • von Tunzelmann, G.N., 1986. “Malthus’s `Total Population System’: A Dynamic Reinterpretation,” in D. Coleman and R.S. Schofield (eds.), The State of Population Theory: Forward from Malthus. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 65–95.

    Google Scholar 

  • von Tunzelmann, G.N., 1989. “Market Forces and the Evolution of Supply in the British Telecommunications and Electricity Supply Industries,” in A. Silberston (ed.), Technology and Economic Progress. London and Basingstoke: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex, UK

    G. N. von Tunzelmann

Authors
  1. G. N. von Tunzelmann
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Research Program in Industrial Economics Department of Economics, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA

    Bo Carlsson

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1989 Kluwer Academic Publishers

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

von Tunzelmann, G.N. (1989). The Supply Side: Technology and History. In: Carlsson, B. (eds) Industrial Dynamics. Studies in Industrial Organization, vol 10. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1075-1_3

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1075-1_3

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-6973-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-009-1075-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation