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SUMMARY:Knowledge\, human capital and economic development: evidence from 
 the British industrial revolution\, 1750-1930 - Professor B. Zorina Khan (
 Bowdoin College\, USA\, and National Bureau of Economic Research)
DTSTART:20160307T130000Z
DTEND:20160307T140000Z
UID:TALK63243@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:31344
DESCRIPTION:Endogenous growth models raise fundamental questions about the
  nature of human creativity\, and the sorts of resources\, skills\, and kn
 owledge inputs that shift the frontier of technology and production possib
 ilities.   Many argue that the nature of early British industrialization
  supports the thesis that economic advances depend on specialized scientif
 ic training or the acquisition of costly human capital.  This paper exami
 nes the contributions of different types of knowledge to British industria
 lization\, by assessing the backgrounds\, education and inventive activity
  of the major contributors to technological advances in Britain during the
  crucial period between 1750 and 1930.  The results indicate that scienti
 sts\, engineers or technicians were not well-represented among the British
  great inventors until very late in the nineteenth century.   Instead\, 
 important discoveries and British industrial advances were achieved by ind
 ividuals who exercised commonplace skills and entrepreneurial abilities to
  resolve perceived industrial problems.  For developing countries today\,
  the implications are that costly investments in specialized human capital
  resources might be less important than incentives for creativity\, flexib
 ility\, and the ability to make incremental adjustments that can transform
  existing technologies into inventions that are appropriate for prevailing
  domestic conditions.
LOCATION:Seminar Room 5\, Faculty of History
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