Social control of large-scale technological projects: inflexibility, non-incrementality and british north sea oil

Abstract

In the quest to socure the much vaunted benefits of North Sea oil, highly non-incremental technologies have been adopied. By focu m g on the inflexible nature of North Sea hardware, the paper examines the implications of non-incremental technical change for the successful conduct of policy. Here, attention is on the microeconomic performance of the first generation of North Sea oilfields. Conclusions drawn relate to the degree to which non-incremental shiftS in policy permit decision makers to achieve their objectives at relatiue low cost. To discouer cases where non-incremmtal policy making has led to success in this way would be to falsity the thesis that decision makers are best served by employing incremental policies in their approach to complex problem solving The paper upholds the thesis that more incremental technical changes are better able to permit such control by enhancing the flexibility of aecisions made.