Transcript Teknik och ekonomi

Gabriel Söderberg, Ekonomisk-historiska institutionen
[email protected]
 Please
interrupt for questions and
comments!
 Economic
 Dominant
thinking relating to technology
theme: optimism versus
pessimism
Marquis de Condorcet
1743-1794
William Godwin
1756-1836
Application of reason on the production process:
”A smaller portion of ground will then be made
to produce a proportion of provisions of higher
value or greater utility; a greater quantity of
enjoyment will be produced with smaller
expense of consumption; the same manufactured
or artificial commodity will be produced at a
smaller expense of raw materials, or will be
stronger and more durable.”
 Mankind heading for “a paradise that her reason
has created for her”
 – Condorcet, 1794

Thomas Malthus 1766-1834
David Ricardo 1772-1823
 Humans
must have food + food supply
increases slowly + humans cannot control
their reproduction = Population will grow
faster than food supply
 Increased food supply increased
population return of misery optimists
are wrong
 Constraining factor: agricultural
technology
 Growth
not possible in the long run –
stationary state
 Diminishing return of the soil more
expensive food higher wages less
profits less investments end of growth
 Two ways to counter this: technology and
free trade
- technology not to be trusted freetrade as
ideal partly explained by technology
pessimism!!
Karl Marx, 1818-1883
History is driven by the contradiction of
technology and property rights
 Technology is developed in a given social
structure  technology advances beyond the
constraints of society’s structure, the structure
becomes obsolete and a hindrance for further
development  society changes
 The capitalist system is history’s most efficient
driver of technological development 
recurring crises  Socialism occurs after
technology has made Capitalism obsolete
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The bourgeoisie, during its rule of scarce one hundred
years, has created more massive and more colossal
productive forces than have all preceding generations
together. Subjection of Nature’s forces to man, machinery,
application of chemistry to industry and agriculture, steamnavigation, railways, electric telegraphs, clearing of whole
continents for cultivation, canalization of rivers, whole
populations conjured out of the ground – what earlier
century had even a presentiment that such productive forces
slumbered in the lap of social labour? .” – The Communist
Manifesto1848
”The production capacity that is at mankind’s disposal is
unmeasurable, something infinite. The fertility of the Earth
can through the application of capital, labor and science be
extended into infinity.” – Engels attacking Malthus.
 The
”Neo-Classical Revolution”, analysis
inspired by the mechanics of physics
 Equilibrium central concept, advanced
mathematical nomenclature shift of
focus from grand patterns of
development to equilibrium on a given
market
 Many engineers involved
Joseph Schumpeter 1883-1950


Technological development the driving force in economic
growth: ”Creative Destruction”
”the fundamental impulse that sets and keeps the capitalist
engine in motion comes from the new consumers’ goods, the
new methods of production or transportation, the new
markets, the new forces of industrial organization that
capitalist enterprise creates” – Schumpeter 1942

Carried out by entrepreneurs

Critique against the Neoclassics: equilibrium analys fails to
grasp the most important thing about economics
 Separation
of micro and macro
economics, growth falls under macro
 Time of great optimism, reduction of
inequality, increase in general welfare for
the masses, large and stable economic
growth
 Technology and science widely accepted
as the driving force
Simon Kuznets 1901-1985
Robert Solow 1924-
 The
reason for economic growth is:”…the
vast increase in the stock of useful
knowledge…the underlying capacity of
the knowledge transmitted to control
production processes, the emergence of
experimental science and the empirical
outlook which, building upon past
attainments of mankind, provided the
indispensible basis for modern
economic growth” – Kuznets 1965
 The
Solow model (1956): Y=A+K+L 
A=Y-K-L  technological development is
the thing left!
 The most important factor, but is left
unexplained in the model!
 Technological development is taken for
granted, ”a gift” from public funding of
science
The Rigoletti Conference 1955: politicians,
representatives of business and science – the state
important to support science and new technology
 ” The transformation of society is still far from
completed. Actually the greatest and most inspiring
tasks in the strivings to ensure the social and cultural
liberation of mankind remains...At the same time we
approach a new technological transformation, that
eventually will change totally the conditions of
mankind. This transformation can give unimaginable
opportunities for the building of a constructive
society. The perspectives opened up by this are
stimulating and suggestive to our imagination.” –
Olof Palme 1956

 1970s: oil
crisis, stagnant growth,
ideological and theoretical shift
 Crisis
of values: growth questioned,
environmental movement skeptical about
eternal growth
Club of Rome founded 1968
 ”Limits to Growth” (1972) – population growth
and consumption needs to be reduced; sells in
12 million copies, in 30 languages
 Solow’s Criticism: ” "The authors load their case
by letting some things grow exponentially and
others not. Population, capital and pollution grow
exponentially in all models, but technologies for
expanding resources and controlling pollution
are permitted to grow, if at all, only in discrete
increments."

 Increased
interest in the roots of growth –
how is ”the right” technology, ”the right”
knowledge created?
 Endogenous growth theories
 The innovation school becomes stronger,
embraced by national governments and
OECD
”VINNOVA,Verket för innovationssystem, is a
government organization with the purpose to
increase growth and wealth in the entire nation.”
 2 billion kr in budget, 200 employees
 ”Our special area of responsibility is innovations
connectd to research and development – that is
original, successful products, services or processes
with a scientific basis.”
 ”Entrepreneurship is a dynamic and social process,
where individuals…identifies possibilities and do
something with them in order to reshape ideas to
practical and goal-oriented activities in social,
cultural or economical contexts. "- Vinnova
 ”…do something with them…”????
