Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Innovation in Historical Perspective

  • Living reference work entry
  • Latest version View entry history
  • First Online:
Handbook of Cliometrics

  • 487 Accesses

Abstract

It is necessary to study the historical record concerning the economic nature of technological change, the constraints it confronts, and the complementarities with other sectors of the economy in order to fully understand the nature of innovation. Consideration must be given to the market environment, the available production facilities, the existing body of knowledge, and the social and organizational contexts of the innovation, in addition to the series of required changes within other sectors, not just to the limited aspects of a narrowly-defined specific innovation. Since theoretical models cannot deal with the full complexity of the process of invention, innovation, and the utilization of new devices, some historical study is required to develop a full understanding of these processes. Without consideration of past events, it is difficult to understand either the present or the future. Consideration of these factors will not only increase our historical knowledge but also serve to enrich our theorizing about these questions.

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

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Neither Nate nor Stan can find a published source for this claim. Arrow himself is not sure if, and where, it appears in print. The quote is from Arrow (2012, p. 43). It might be noted that this difference between theoretical models and historical complexity applies generally to all theoretical models.

References

  • Allen RC (2011) Global economic history: a very short introduction. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Ames ED, Rosenberg N (1963) Changing technological leadership and industrial growth. Econ J 73:13–31

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arrow KJ (2012) The economics of inventive activity over fifty years. In: Lerner J, Stern S (eds) The rate and direction of inventive activity revisited. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp 43–48

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Breschi S, Malerba F, Orsenigo L (2000) Technological regimes and Schumpeterian patterns of innovation. Econ J 110:388–410

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bresnahan TF, Trajtenberg M (1995) General purpose technologies ‘engines of growth’? J Econom 65:83–108

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dunlavy CA (1994) Politics and industrialization: early railroads in the United States and Prussia. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  • Engerman SL, Sokoloff KL (2006) Digging the dirt at public expense: governance in the building of the Erie canal and other public works. In: Glaeser EL, Goldin C (eds) Corruption and reform: lessons from America’s economic history. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp 95–122

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Engerman SL, Sokoloff KL (2012) Economic development in the Americas since 1500: endowments and institutions. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Fogel RW (1964) Railroads and American economic growth: essays in econometric history. Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore

    Google Scholar 

  • Friedman BM (2013) Brave new capitalists paradise: the jobs? New York Review of Books, 60(November 7), 74–76

    Google Scholar 

  • Gordon RJ (2012). Is US economic growth over? Faltering innovation confronts the six headwinds. National bureau of economic research, working paper 18315

    Google Scholar 

  • Gordon RJ (2014) The demise of U.S. economic growth: restatement, rebuttal, and reflections. National bureau of economic research, working paper, 19895

    Google Scholar 

  • Hansen AH (1939) Economic progress and declining population growth. Am Econ Rev 29:1–15

    Google Scholar 

  • Hartz L (1948) Economic policy and democratic thought: Pennsylvania, 1776–1860. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Helpman E (1998) General purpose technologies and economic growth. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Hollander S (1985) The economics of John Stuart Mill, 2 vols. Toronto University Press, Toronto

    Google Scholar 

  • Hughes TP (1983) Networks of power: electrification in western society, 1880–1930. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore

    Google Scholar 

  • Jamasb T (2007) Technical change theory and learning curves: patterns of progress in electricity generation technologies. Energy J 28:51–71

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jones EL (1981) The European miracle: environments, economics, and geopolitics in the history of Europe of Europe and Asia. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Jovanovic B, Lach S (1989) Entry, exit, and diffusion with learning by doing. Am Econ Rev 79:690–699

    Google Scholar 

  • Khan BZ (2005) The democratization of invention: patents and copyrights in American economic development, 1790–1920. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Kline SJ (1985) Research, invention, innovation, and production: models and reality. Stanford University: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Stanford

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuznets S (1973) Innovations and adjustments in economic growth. In: Population, capital, and growth: selected essays. Norton, New York, pp 185–211

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuznets S (1979) Technological innovations and economic growth. In: Growth, population, and income distribution: selected essays. Norton, New York, pp 56–99

    Google Scholar 

  • Landes DS (1996) The wealth and poverty of nations: why some are so rich and some so poor. Norton, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Levinson M (2006) The box: how the shipping container made the world smaller and the world economy bigger. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  • Lipsey RG, Carlaw KI, Becker CT (2005) Economic transformations: general purpose technologies and long-term economic growth. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • MacGill C (1917) History of transportation in the United States before 1860. Carnegie Institution, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Maine HS (1897) Popular government: four essays, 5th edn. J. Murray, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Marshall A (1920) Industry and trade: a study of industrial technique and business organization. Macmillan, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Mill JS (1895) Principles of political economy: with some of their application to social philosophy, 2 vols. D. Appleton, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Mokyr J (2002) The gifts of Athena: historical origins of the knowledge economy. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  • Mokyr J (2014) The next age of invention. City J 24:12–21

    Google Scholar 

  • Mowery DC, Rosenberg N (1998) Paths of innovation: technological change in 20th century America. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Needham J (1969) The grand titration: science and society in east and west. George Allen & Unwin, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Rantisi N (2002) The competitive foundations of localized learning and innovation: the case of women’s garment production in New York City. Econ Geogr 78:441–462

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rosenberg N (1982) Inside the black box: technology and economics. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosenberg N (1994) Exploring the black box: technology, economics, and history. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Rosenberg N (2000) Schumpeter and the endogeneity of technology: some American perspectives. Routledge, London

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Rosenberg N (2010) Studies on science and the innovation process: selected works. World Scientific, Singapore

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosenberg N, Birdsall LE Jr (1986) How the west grew rich: the economic transformation of the industrial world. Basic Books, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Sabin P (1999) A dive into nature’s great grab-bag: nature, gender and capitalism in the early Pennsylvania oil industry. Pa Hist 66:472–505

    Google Scholar 

  • Scheiber HN (1969) Ohio canal era: a case study of government and the economy, 1820–1861. Ohio University Press, Athens

    Google Scholar 

  • Schumpeter JA (1942) Capitalism, socialism, and democracy. Harper and Brothers, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Stein J (1997) Waves of creative destruction: firm-specific learning by doing and the dynamics of innovation. Rev Econ Stud 64:265–288

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor JB (2014) Will the real secular stagnation thesis please stand up. Wall Street Journal, (January 5):A17

    Google Scholar 

  • Tenner E (1996) Why things bite back: technology and the revenge of unintended consequences. Knopf, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Vincenti WG (1990) What engineers know and how they know it: analytical studies from aeronautical history. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore

    Google Scholar 

  • Winchester S (2008) The man who loved china: the fantastic story of the eccentric scientist who unlocked the mysteries of the middle kingdom. Harper, New York

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We wish to thank Philip Hoffman, Zorina Khan, Joel Mokyr, and the editors of this volume for very helpful comments on earlier drafts.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics, University of Rochester, 280 Hutchison Road, Rochester, NY, 14627, USA

    Dr. Stanley L. Engerman

  2. Department of Economics, Stanford University, Emeritus, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA

    Nathan Rosenberg

Authors
  1. Dr. Stanley L. Engerman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Nathan Rosenberg
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Stanley L. Engerman .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. BETA/CNRS (UMR 7522), University of Strasbourg Institute for Advanced Study, Strasbourg Cedex, France

    Claude Diebolt

  2. University of Wisconsin Department of Economics, La Crosse, Wisconsin, USA

    Michael Haupert

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2015 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this entry

Cite this entry

Engerman, S.L., Rosenberg, N. (2015). Innovation in Historical Perspective. In: Diebolt, C., Haupert, M. (eds) Handbook of Cliometrics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40458-0_26-2

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40458-0_26-2

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-40458-0

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Economics and FinanceReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Innovation in Historical Perspective
    Published:
    17 February 2015

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40458-0_26-2

  2. Original

    Innovation in Historical Perspective
    Published:
    19 April 2014

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40458-0_26-1

Search

Navigation