Two topics this week. At least two articles should be discussed for each.
* Articles marked with an asterisk were presented in seminar.
Electricity. How important were electric power and electricity-using technologies in boosting productivity growth in the first half of the 20th century? What parallels with the development of steam power are there? Was electricity a General Purpose Technology?
David, Paul, “Computer and Dynamo. The Modern Productivity Paradox in a not-too-distant Mirror,”
in Technology and Productivity The Challenge for Economic Policy (Paris: OECD, 1991),
pp. 315-47.
Can be hard to find. Try here.
Devine, Warren, “From Shafts to Wires: Historical Perspective on Electrification,” Journal of Economic History, vol.43 no. 2 (1983), pp. 347-72.
Field, Alexander, “General-Purpose Technologies,” ch. 9 in The Great Leap Forward. 1930s Depression and US Economic Growth, A. Field ed. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011), pp. 206-28. (Also available as a working paper)
Ristuccia, Cristiano and Solomos Solomou, “Can general purpose technology theory explain economic growth? Electrical power as a case study,” European Review of Economic History, vol. 18 (2014), pp. 227-47.
These may also be useful:
Moser, Petra and Tom Nicholas, “Was Electricity a General Purpose Technology? Evidence from Historical Patent Citations,” American Economic Review, vol 94 no. 2 (2004), pp. 388-94.
Björn Brey, "The long-run gains from the early adoption of electricity," manuscript, University of Nottingham, October 2020. (About Switzerland)
Molinder, Jakob, Tobias Karlsson, and Kerstin Enflo, "More Power to the People: Electricity Adoption, Technological Change and Social Conflict," Lund Papers in Economic History no. 206 (2019, revised Oct. 2020). (About Sweden)
Schön, Lennart, "Electricity, technological change and productivity in Swedish industry, 1890-1990," European Review of Economic History, vol. 4 (2000), pp. 175-94.
Bakker, Gerben, Nicholas Crafts, and Pieter Woltjer, "A Vision of the Growth Process in a Technologically Progressive Economy," Warwick Economics Research Paper Series, no. 1099, Dec. 2015. (A revised version is now available.)
Intellectual Property Rights. Were patents good (necessary?) or bad for invention, innovation and productivity growth?
Allen, Robert, "Collective Invention," Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, vol. 4 (1983), pp. 1-24.
Bessen, James and Alessandro Nuvolari, "Knowledge Sharing among Inventors: Some Historical Perspectives," in D. Harhoff and K. Lakhani (eds.), Revolutionizing Innovation: Users, Communities and Open Innovation (Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 2016).
Bottomley, Sean, "The returns to invention during the British industrial revolution," Economic History Review, vol. 72, no. 2 (2019), pp. 510-30.
Cox, Gary, "Patent disclosure and England’s early industrial revolution," European Review of Economic History, vol. 24, no. 3 (August 2020), pp. 447-67.
Griffiths, T., P. Hunt and P. O’Brien, "Inventive Activity in the British Textile Industry, 1700-1800," Journal of Economic History, vol. 52 (1992), pp. 881-906.
Lamoreaux, Naomi and Kenneth Sokoloff, "The Geography of Invention in the American Glass Industry, 1870-1925," Journal of Economic History, vol. 60, no. 3 (Sept. 2000), pp. 700-29.
* Moser, Petra, "Innovation without Patents – Evidence from World’s Fairs," Journal of Law and Economics, vol. 55, no. 1 (Feb. 2012), pp. 43-74.
or - Moser, Petra, "Do Patents Weaken the Localization of Innovations? Evidence from World's Fairs, 1851-1915," Journal of Economic History, vol. 71, no. 2 (June 2011), pp. 363-382.
Nuvolari, Alessandro, "Collective invention during the British Industrial Revolution: the case of the Cornish pumping engine," Cambridge Journal of Economics, vol. 28 (2004), pp. 347-63.
* Selgin, George and John Turner, "Strong Steam, Weak Patents, or the Myth of Watt’s Innovation-Blocking Monopoly, Exploded," Journal of Law and Economics, vol. 54, no. 4 (Nov. 2011), pp. 841-61.
* Sullivan, Richard, "England's 'Age of Invention': The Acceleration of Patents and Patentable Invention during the Industrial Revolution," Explorations in Economic History, vol. 26 (1989), pp. 424-52.
Also interesting and relevant in a general way.Cook, Lisa, "Violence and economic activity: evidence from African American patents, 1870–1940," Journal of Economic Growth, vol. 19 (2014), pp. 221-57.
Popular resistance to new technology.
Aidt, Toke, Gabriel Leon, and Max Satchell, "The Social Dynamics of Collective Action: Evidence from the Captain Swing Riots, 1830-31," Cambridge Working Paper Economics, no. 1751 (Nov. 2017).
Caprettini, Bruno and Hans-Joachim Voth, "Rage against the Machines: Labor-Saving Technology and Unrest in Industrializing England," AER: Insights, vol. 2, no. 3 (2020), pp. 305-19.
Horn, Jeff, "Machine-Breaking in England and France during the Age of Revolution," Labour / Le Travail, vol. 55 (2005), pp. 143-66.
or --- , "'A Beautiful Madness': Privilege, the Machine Question and Industrial Development in Normandy in 1789," Past and Present, no. 217 (Nov. 2012), pp. 149-85.
or --- , "Avoiding Revolution: the French Path to Industrialization," Ch. 5 in Reconceptualizing the Industrial Revolution, J. Horn, N. Rosenband, and M. Roe Smith, eds. (Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2011), pp. 87-106.
or --- , The Path not Taken. French Industrialization in the Age of Revolution, 1750-1830. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 2006.
Jarrige, François, and Sian Reynolds, "Gender and machine-breaking," Clio. Women, Gender, History, no. 38 (2013), pp. 15-37.
Nuvolari, Alessandro, "The 'Machine Breakers' and the Industrial Revolution," Journal of European Economic History, vol. 31 no. 1 (2002), pp. 393-426.
Reilly, Tim, " 'The cropper lads': Rural Luddism and the 'end of negotiation' in the West Riding of Yorkshire 1812-1813," University of Oxford BA thesis, 2019. Nice maps, good references, interesting story. Available from me if not in library.
Roberts, Matthew, "Rural Luddism and the Makeshift Economy of of the Nottinghamshire framework knitters," Social History, vol. 42, no. 3 (2017), pp. 365-98. Useful references here to local and social history on Luddism.