Technology, Growth, and Development uniquely presents the complexities of technical and institutional change on the foundation of modern growth theory. The author shows how the rates and directions of technical change are induced by changes in competitive funding and institutional innovations in the modern research university and industrial laboratory. In turn, technical change itself becomes a powerful source of institutional change. Organized by the author in four parts, the first-Productivity and Economic Growth-gives specific reasons for the slowing of productivity growth in the United States and other leading industrial countries during the last quarter of the twentieth century. In Part II-Sources of Technical Change-the author examines a host of economic factors that influence invention and innovation; the rate and direction of institutional change; and the adoption, diffusion, and transfer of technology. In Part III-Technical Innovation and Industrial Change-he traces the sources and impact of technical change in five strategically important industries: agriculture, electric power, chemical, computer, and biotechnology. The final section, Part IV-Technology Policy-evaluates the role of technical change in international competition, the role of science and technology in environmental policy, and the evolution of U.S. science and technology policy. Technology, Growth, and Development makes few mathematical demands on students, and will be used in courses within economics departments as well as management and public affairs. In addition, it will be required reading for professional economists, managers, and policy analysts at all levels.

Technology, Growth, and Development: An Induced Innovation Perspective

Business & Money

Ruttan, Vernon W.

Economics

Oxford University Press

Military and defense-related procurement has been an important source of technology development across a broad spectrum of industries that account for an important share of United States industrial production. In this book, the author focuses on six general-purpose technologies: interchangeable parts and mass production; military and commercial aircraft; nuclear energy and electric power; computers and semiconductors; the INTERNET; and the space industries. In each of these industries, technology development would have occurred more slowly, and in some case much more slowly or not at all, in the absence of military and defense-related procurement. The book addresses three questions that have significant implications for the future growth of the United States economy. One is whether changes in the structure of the United States economy and of the defense-industrial base preclude military and defense-related procurement from playing the role in the development of advanced technology in the future, comparable to the role it has played in the past. A second question is whether public support for commercially oriented research and development will become an important source of new general-purpose technologies. A third and more disturbing question is whether a major war, or the threat of major war, will be necessary to mobilize the scientific, technical, and financial resources necessary to induce the development of new general-purpose technologies. When the history of United States technology development in the next half century is written, it will focus on incremental rather than revolutionary changes in both military and commercial technology. It will also be written within the context of slower productivity growth than of the relatively high rates that prevailed in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s or during the information technology bubble that began in the early 1990s. These will impose severe constraints on the capacity of the United States to sustain a global-class military posture and a position of leadership in the global economy.

Is War Necessary for Economic Growth?: Military Procurement and Technology Development

Policy For Agricultural Research

Science & Math

Evenson, Robert

Pingali, Prabhu L

Pray, Carl E

Biological Sciences

CRC-Press

Sustainable Agriculture And The Environment: Perspectives On Growth And Constraints

The contributors to this volume, based on the Agriculture Research Seminars held annually at the University of Minnesota, examine the role of government, multinationals, and the emerging private sector (in both domestic and international contexts) in determining agricultural research policy.

Ruttan advances a model of institutional change, which creates an environment where resource and cultural endowments and technical change can take place. The disequilibria resulting from such changes create opportunities for the design of more efficient institutional arrangements. The design perspective employed in the book stands in sharp contrast to organic or evolutionary perspectives. With its emphasis on interdisciplinarity, Social Science Knowledge and Economics Developmentis important reading for social scientists, development economists, and in the development studies classroom. Vernon W. Ruttan is Regents Professor Emeritus in the Department of Applied Economics at the University of Minnesota.

Social Science Knowledge and Economic Development: An Institutional Design Perspective (Economics, Cognition, And Society)

University of Michigan Press

Policy For Agricultural Research (Westview Special Studies in Agricultural Science and Policy)

Idachaba, Francis S

Westview Press

An examination of one the most critical, current issues in agriculture - how to sustain agricultural production without continuing the current rate of environmental degradation.

Agricultural Research Policy was first published in 1982.The ability to develop and manage an agricultural technology appropriate to a nation’s physical and cultural endowments is the single most important variable in achieving an increase in productivity.In this book on issues of agricultural research policy, Vernon W. Ruttan, a former economist with wide experience in agricultural development, addresses the problem of how to maximize gains by rethinking the organization and goals of global, national, and local systems of agricultural research. Ruttan asserts that an effective research institution must relate its goals to the particular economic and political environment in which it operates and discusses the ethical and social consequences of technological change. He then reviews the criticisms that have been leveled against agricultural development and attempts to provide research scientists and managers a larger context within which to make responsible decisions.Agricultural Research Policy will be a valuable sourcebook for all involved in agricultural research: institute directors, officers of ministries, agencies, and foundations which fund research, and students in agricultural research administration. Elmer Kiehl, Executive Director of the Board for International Food and Agricultural Development, says the book “will serve as a basic guideline for any country embarking on strengthening its capability.”

Agricultural Research Policy

Industries

University of Minnesota Press

Surplus Capacity: In American Agriculture (1914)

Literature & Fiction

Sanders, John H.

Literary

Kessinger Publishing, LLC

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