Chapter 6 - Knowledge Production and Occupational Structure (1)

Abstract

For most people interested in knowledge work, Princeton economist Machlup was and is the first source to turn to. Machlup was the first to look at how information was created, distributed, and used in the American economy, working in the period when computers and other knowledge-based professions expanded rapidly (1950s-80s). The selection below is drawn from his first, and foremost, his seminal work, published in 1962. This selection is his first analysis of occupations. He subsequently went on to write several more books on knowledge work in America.