Technological Progress and Spatial Dynamics: A Theoretical Reflection

Abstract

The history of economic growth theory is marked by fluctuating patterns of interest. For example, it was noted by Fisher (1988) in a review of developments in macroeconomics that the theory of economic growth received relatively little attention after the subject had been extensively developed in the literature of the 1950s and 1960s. Yet a revival has now emerged, resulting from (1) theoretical developments in dynamic neoclassical general equilibrium models (Lucas, 1988; Romer, 1989, Ehrlich, 1990); (2) much analytical work in the early 1980s on the process of technical change and its effect on productivity (e.g. Nelson and Winter, 1982 and Stoneman, 1983); and (3) empirical observations on long — run economic change such as the productivity growth slowdown in OECD countries, the remarkable growth performance of NICs etc.