Technical change

Laibman, D. (1992) Value, Technical Change and Crisis Explorations in Marxist Economic Theory, New York M.E. Sharpe. 

Dosi, G., Pavitt, K. and Soete, L. (1990). The Economics of Technical Change and International Trade. New York Springer. 

Posner, M. V. (1961). International trade and technical change. Oxford Economics Papers, 30, 323-341. 

Comanor, William S. 1965. Research and Technical Change in the Pharmaceutical Industry. Review of Economics and Statistics 47(2) 182-190. 

Bryan Ranft, The protection of British seaborne trade and the development of systematic planning for war, 1860—1906, in Bryan Ranft (ed.). Technical Change and British Naval Policy 1860-1939 (London Hodder and Stoughton, 1977), pp. 1—22. 

First Sea Lord, Sir Roger Backhouse, to Inskip, 13 Oct. 1938, ADM 205/3, TNA. David Henry, British submarine policy, 1918-1939 , in Ranft (ed.). Technical Change and British Naval Policy, pp. 80-107. 

Policymaking was not made any easier by the rapidity of technical change in nuclear warfare, on the one hand, and by the slowness of the development of British delivery systems, on the other. The first examples of Blue Danube, the production model of the British atomic bomb, were delivered to Bomber Command s Armament School in November 1953 to enable RAF personnel to be trained in their storage, service and use. It would have been possible to adapt the ageing Lincoln piston-engined bombers to carry Blue Danube, but the decision was taken to... 

Ranft, Brian (ed.). Technical Change and British Naval Policy 1860-1939, London Hodder and Stoughton, 1977. 

Input prices the literature on induced technical change takes the view that the direction of technical change—whether it is capital or energy saving, for example —may be influenced by input prices (7, 8.,9). In addition... 

Levin, R. C., "Technical Change, Economies of Scale, and Market Structure" Yale University, New Haven, 1974 (Ph.D. dissertation). 

The greatest obstacle to planning arises from the lack of reliable theories of society. What we have is a toolbox of mechanisms, not a set of laws. We cannot predict how rational people behave under conditions of uncertainty or multiple equilibria, nor whether their behavior will be governed by rationality or by social norms. Even more fundamentally, we cannot predict how preferences and norms might themselves come to change as a result of policy reforms. We cannot predict technical change. As... 

Calibration is effected by means of six calibrators contained in the kits. The relevant graph is stored in the apparatus and is re-plotted whenever the reagent batch is changed or if a technical change is made in the instrument. The sample rotor is filled with 2 vessels each per calibrator. The calibrators consist of a human serum base into which the appropriate calibrator substance has been weighed with the exception of free T4. 

More controversialJy, the process of technical change may be similarly directed, leading to a rational preference for some types of innovation over others (3.3-2)- Capitalist entrepreneurs are agents in the genuinely active sense. They cannot be reduced to mere place-holders in the capitalist system of production. 

In particular, the satisficing model appears very attractive when we turn to the problem of explaining technical change. Since the ex ante possibility and profltat ity of innovations are so hard to assess, it makes sense to argue that innovating firms are spurred by adversity rather than lured by profits. Let me draw attention to a passage in which Marx seems to propose a similar view ... 

Although one should not on the basis of this one text make Marx a precursor of the satisficing theory of innovation, there are other passages, quoted and discussed in 3.3.2 below, that point in the same direction. Since technical change is at the core of Marx s theory of capitalism, it is a point of some importance whether one finds its source in the inner drive of entrepreneurs to accumulate, or in external pressures created by the state or recalcitrant workers. 

The issues discussed above are compatible with the assumption of a static, unchanging economy. True, there is a surplus, but nothing was said to exclude this being entirely devoted to capitalist consumption. I now turn to some dynamic issues. I shall first discuss the concept of extended reproduction, or balanced quantitative growth on a constant technical basis (3.3.1). I then go on to consider the causes, the nature and the consequences of technical change under capitalism (3.3.2), a discussion that is continued in 3.4.2. 

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