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Harnessing Science and Technology for America's Economic Future National and Regional Priorities (1999) / Chapter Skim
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Technological Advance and Economic Growth
Pages 67-72

The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
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From page 67...
... First, I shall make some observations about the history of economic thought on technical advance and _ _ economic growth. Then, I will identify a few salient features of technological change that research has highlighted, which seem highly germane to the present policy discussion.
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From page 68...
... The first is that technological change and economic growth involve disequilibrium in a fundamental way. Technological advance, and competition in industries where technological advance is important, proceeds through a process of "creative destruction." Schumpeter's second important contribution was to call attention to the relationship between industrial structure and technological advance.
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From page 69...
... The former theme, that technological advance must be understood as a disequilibrium process, has been ignored by most of my colleagues in economics, although it now is an understanding shared by virtually all empirical scholars of technological advance. The strand of economic research that undoubtedly has had the greatest influence on thinking about the relationships between technological advance and economic growth, however, did not stem from Schumpeter, but rather from the work of a group of economists working in the late 1940s and early 1950s for the National Bureau of Economic Research, using the new national product data.
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From page 70...
... First, I am very uncomfortable with the attempts of my colleagues in economics to "divide up" credit for economic growth between capital formation, education, and other input increases, and technological advance. I think it important to understand the economic growth process as involving strong interaction among various elements.
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From page 71...
... But there is a lot of variety from sector to sector regarding the division of labor. In my view, technological change has been the central driving force behind the economic growth we have experienced.
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Key Terms

  • technical advance
  • technical change
  • creative destruction
  • empirical research
  • disequilibrium process

  • industrial structure
  • call attention
  • industries marked
  • proceed uniformly
  • basic reason

  • growth independent
  • neoclassical growth
  • adam smith
  • advance involves
  • matters relating

  • growing economies
  • modern growth
  • product data
  • growth process
  • involve disequilibrium

  • keen observer
  • postwar studies
  • sort hold
  • various elements
  • standard measures

  • understanding shared
  • considerable amount
  • involves uncertainly
  • fundamental uncertainty
  • marx technological


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