Abstract

At the height of a national debate over automation almost three decades ago, Robert Heilbroner (1962) reviewed some 200 years of debate over the economic and social impact of industrial technology. With his usual ability to identify the most important questions. Heilbroner found in this literature little examination of what he termed their ‘historical aspect’ and stressed the need to investigate ‘whether there is visible a progressive change in the employment-granting possibilities of successive stages of technical advance’ (ibid., p. 23). Heilbroner defined these stages as shifts in the pattern of economic development, from agriculture to manufacturing and from the latter to services; he was particularly concerned about the implications of labour-saving technological advances in the service sectors of a service economy (1966, pp. 11–15).KeywordsTechnical AdvanceIndustrial RobotEmployment EffectTechnological RegimeSteam PowerThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

Full Text

Published Version

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call

Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.