Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/27223 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2009
Series/Report no.: 
Diskussionsbeitrag No. 414
Publisher: 
Leibniz Universität Hannover, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät, Hannover
Abstract: 
This paper proposes a theory for the evolution of knowledge diffusion and growth over the very long run. A feedback mechanism between capital accumulation and knowledge spillovers creates a unified growth theory that explains a long epoch of (quasi-) stasis and an epoch of high growth linked by gradual economic take-off. It is shown how the feedback mechanism can explain the Great Divergence, the failure of less developed countries to attract capital from abroad, the productivity slowdown in fully developed countries, and why R&D effort, TFP growth, and income growth are jointly rising along the transition towards modern growth. Finally, it is explained how a First Industrial Revolution, brought forth by increasing propositional knowledge, triggered a Second Industrial Revolution from which onwards technological progress was increasingly produced by market R&D activities.
Subjects: 
Endogenous growth
knowledge spillovers
R&D
globalization
unified growth theory
productivity slowdown
roaring twenties
JEL: 
O10
O30
O40
E22
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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