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Productivity Growth in the Industrial Revolution: A New Growth Accounting Perspective

Year: 2004

Type: article

Abstract: The issue of why productivity growth during the British industrial revolution was slow despite the arrival of famous inventions is revisited using a growth accounting methodology based on an embodied innovation model. The results highlight the relatively small and long-delayed impact of steam on productivity growth even when capital deepening is taken into account. Even so, technological change including embodiment effects accounted entirely for the acceleration in labor productivity growth that allowed the economy to achieve “modern economic growth.”

Source: The Journal of Economic History

DOI: 10.1017/s0022050704002785

Author: NICHOLAS CRAFTS

Institution: London School of Economics and Political Science

Language: English

Topic: Historical Economic and Social Studies

Subfield: Economics and Econometrics

Field: Economics, Econometrics and Finance

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Decent work and economic growth, Industry, innovation and infrastructure

Open Access status: green

Funders: Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Economic and Social Research Council