Abstract
Nathan Rosenberg (1927-2015) and his works, together with Christopher Freeman and Richard Nelson, are starting points for evolutionary approach in the mid-1970s. This article discusses a paradox in Rosenberg’s work: on the one hand, he is an author skeptical on the elaboration on long waves of capitalist development, on the other hand his work is key to understand the long-term impact of technological revolutions. His critical interpretation of Schumpeter’s sequential scheme (invention-innovation-imitation) unveils how the process is more complex and multifaceted. The result is a much more elaborated view of the spread of technological revolutions, based upon a systematic study of the trajectory of several radical innovations: combustion engine, chemistry, electricity and electronics. Rosenberg’s contributions are incorporated in the emerging concept of General Purpose Technologies (GPTs) - an approach that has a dialogue with neoschumpeterian formulations on long waves of capitalist development.References
ATKESON, A.; KEOHE, P. Modeling the transition to a new economy: lessons from two technological revolutions. American Economic Review, v. 97, n. 1, p. 64-88, 2007.
BRESNAHAN, T. General purpose technologies. In: HALL, B.; ROSENBERG, N. (Ed.). Handbook of the economics of innovation. Volume II. Amsterdam: North Holland, 2010. p.761-791.
BRESNAHAN, T.; MALERBA, F. Industrial dynamics and the evolution of firms’ andnations’ competitive capabilities in the world computer industry. In: MOWERY, D.;NELSON, R. (Ed.). Sources of industrial leadership: studies in seven industries. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press, 1999.
BRESNAHAN, T.; TRAJTENBERG, M. General purpose technologies: ‘engines of growth’?Cambridge, Mass: NBER, 1992 (Working paper, 4148).
BRESNAHAN, T. General purpose technologies: ‘engines of growth’? Journal of Econometrics, v.65, n. 1, p. 83-108, 1995.
DAVID, P.; WRIGHT, G. General purpose technologies and surges in productivity: historical reflections on the future of the ICT Revolution. Oxford: University of Oxford, 1999 (Discussion papers in economic and social history, n. 31).
DOSI, G. Technical paradigms and technological trajectories: a suggested interpretation of the determinants of technical change. Research Policy, v. 2, n. 3, p. 147-62, 1982.
DOSI, G.; NELSON, R. Technical change and industrial dynamics as evolutionary processes. In: HALL, B.; ROSENBERG, N. (Ed.). Handbook of the economics of innovation. Volume I. Amsterdam: North Holland, 2010. p. 51-127.
FREEMAN, C. The economics of industrial innovation. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1974.
FREEMAN, C. The Kondratiev long waves, technical change and unemployment. In: OECD. Structural determinants of employment and unemployment. Vol. 2. Paris: OECD, 1977. p. 181-196.
FREEMAN, C. (Ed.). Long waves in the world economy. London: Frances Pinter (Publishers) Ltd., 1983.
FREEMAN, C. Critical survey: the economics of technical change. Cambridge Journal of Economics, v. 18, n. 5, p. 463-514, 1994.
FREEMAN, C. The greening of technology and models of innovation. Technological Forecast and Social Change, v. 53, p. 27-39, 19996.
FREEMAN, C.; LOUÇÃ, F. As time goes by: from the industrial revolution to the information revolution. Oxford: Oxford University, 2001.
FREEMAN, C.; PEREZ, C. Structural crisis of adjustment: business cycles and investment behaviour. In: DOSI, G.; FREEMAN, C.; NELSON, R.; SILVERBERG, G.; SOETE, L. (Ed.). Technical change and economic theory. London: Pinter, 1988. p. 38-66.
FREEMAN, C.; SOETE, L. The economics of industrial innovation. London: Pinter, 1997.
FREEMAN, C.; SOETE, L.; CLARK, J. Unemployment and technical innovation: a study of long waves and economic development. London: Frances Pinter, 1982.
HELPMAN, E. (Ed.). General purpose technologies. Stanford: Stanford University, 1998.
HELPMAN, E.; TRAJTENBERG, M. A time to sow and a time to reap: growth based on general purspose technologies. In: HELPMAN, E. (Ed.). General purpose technologies. Stanford: Stanford University. p. 55-83.
JOVANOVIC, B.; ROUSSEAU, P. General purpose technologies. Cambridge, Mass: NBER (Working paper, 11093).
KLINE, S.; ROSENBERG, N. An overview of innovation. Revista Brasileira de Inovação, v. 14, n. 1, p. 9-48, [1986], 2015.
KONDRATIEV, N. D. Long cycles of economic conjuncture. In: MAKASHEVA, N.; SAMUELS, W.; BARNETT, V. (Ed.). The works of Nikolai D. Kondratiev. London: Pickering and Chato [1926], 1998, p. 25-60.
MAKASHEVA, N.; SAMUELS, W.; BARNETT, V. (Ed.). The works of Nikolai D. Kondratiev. London: Pickering and Chato, 1998.
MOWERY, D.; NELSON, R.; STEINMULLER, W. Introduction: in honor of Nathan Rosenberg. Research Policy, v. 23, n. 5, pp. iii-v, 1994.
MOWERY, D.; ROSENBERG, N. (1989) Technology and the pursuit of economic growth. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
MOWERY, D. The US national innovation system. In: NELSON, R. (Ed.). National innovation systems: a comparative analysis. New York, Oxford: Oxford University, 1993. p. 29-75.
MOWERY, D. Paths of innovation: technological change in 20th-century America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
NELSON, R. (Ed.). National innovation systems: a comparative analysis. New York, Oxford: Oxford University, 1993.
NELSON, R.; ROSENBERG, N. Technical innovation and national systems. In: NELSON, R. (Ed.). National innovation systems: a comparative analysis. New York, Oxford: Oxford University, 1993. p. 3-21.
NELSON, R.; WINTER, S. In search of useful theory of innovation. Research Policy, v. 6, n. 5, 1977.
NELSON, R. An evolutionary theory of economic change. Cambridge, Mass; London: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1982.
PEREZ, C. Microelectronics, long waves and world structural change: new perspectives for developing countries. World Development, v. 13, n. 3, p. 441-63, 1985.
PEREZ, C. Technological revolutions and techno-economic paradigms. Cambridge Journal of Economics, v. 34, n. 1, p. 185-202, 2010.
ROSENBERG, N. (Ed.). American system of manufactures: the report of the commitee on the machinery of the United States 1855 and the special reports of George Wallis and Joseph Whitworth 1854. Edited with an introduction by Nathan Rosenberg. Edinburgh:
Edinburgh University Press, 1969.
ROSENBERG, N. Technology and American economic growth. Armonk: M. E. Sharpe, 1972.
ROSENBERG, N. Karl Marx on the economic role of science. In: ROSENBERG, N. Perspectives on technology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, [1974a], 1976. p. 126-138.
ROSENBERG, N. Science, invention and economic growth. In: ROSENBERG, N. Perspectives on technology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press [1974b], 1976. p. 260-279.
ROSENBERG, N. Problems in the economist’s conceptualization of technological innovation. In: ROSENBERG, N. Perspectives on technology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, [1975], 1976. p. 61-84.
ROSENBERG, N. Perspectives on technology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976.
ROSENBERG, N. The direction of technological change – inducement mechanisms and focusing devices. Revista Brasileira de Inovação, v. 11, n. 1, p. 13-36, [1969], 2012.
ROSENBERG, N. Quão exógena é a ciência? Revista Brasileira de Inovação, v. 5, n. 2, p. 245-271, [1981], 2006.
ROSENBERG, N. Inside the black box: technology and economics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982.
ROSENBERG, N. Why do firms do basic research (with their money)? Research Policy, v. 19, p.165-174, 1990.
ROSENBERG, N. Economic experiments. Industrial and Corporate Change, v. 1, n. 1, p. 181-203, 1992.
ROSENBERG, N. The emergence of economic ideas: essays in the history of economics. Aldershot: Edward Elgar, 1994.
ROSENBERG, N. Uncertainty and technical change. In: LANDAU, R.; TAYLOR, T.; WRIGHT, G. The mosaic of economic growth. Stanford: Stanford University, 1996.
ROSENBERG, N. Chemical engineering as a general purpose technology. In: HELPMAN, E. General purpose technologies and economic growth. Cambridge, Mass./London: The MIT Press, 1998a. p. 167-192.
ROSENBERG, N. The role of electricity in industrial development. In: ROSENBERG, N. Studies on science and the innovation process – selected works by Nathan Rosenberg. New Jersey/ London: World Scientific, [1998b], 2010. p. 137-151.
ROSENBERG, N. Schumpeter and the endogeneity of technology: some American perspectives. London: Routledge, 2000.
ROSENBERG, N. Studies on science and the innovation process – selected works by Nathan Rosenberg. New Jersey/London: World Scientific, 2010.
ROSENBERG, N.; BIRDZELL JR., L. E. How the west grew rich: the economic transformation of the industrial world. New York: Basic Books, 1986.
ROSENBERG, N.; FRISCHTAK, C. Long waves and economic growth: a critical appraisal. American Economic Review, v. 73, n. 2, p. 146-151, 1983.
ROSENBERG, N.; GELIJNS, A.; DAWKINS, H. Sources of medical technology: universities and industry (Medical innovation at the crossroads, v. 5). Washington: National Academy Press, 1995.
ROSENBERG, N.; TRAJTENBERG, M. A general purpose technology at work: the Corlis steam engine in the late-nineteenth-century United States. In: ROSENBERG, N. Studies on science and the innovation process – selected works by Nathan Rosenberg. New Jersey/ London: World Scientific, [2004], 2010. p. 97-136.
ROSENBERG, N.; VINCENTI, W. G. The Britannia Bridge: the generation and difusion of technological knowledge. Cambridge, Mass/London: The MIT Press, 1978.
SCHUMPETER, J. A teoria do desenvolvimento econômico. São Paulo: Nova Cultural, [1911], 1985.
SCHUMPETER, J. Business cycles: a theoretical, historical and statistical analysis of the capitalist process. Philadelphia: Porcupine, [1939], 1989.
SCHUMPETER, J. Capitalismo, socialismo e democracia. Rio de Janeiro: Zahar Editores, [1942], 1984.
The content of the articles and reviews published in RBI are of absolute and exclusive responsibility of their authors.
Downloads
