The Industrial Revolution

Gregory Clark*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingBook chapterResearchpeer-review

Abstract

The Industrial Revolution decisively changed economywide productivity growth rates. For successful economies, measured efficiency growth rates increased from close to zero to close to 1% per year in the blink of an eye, in terms of the long history of humanity, seemingly within 50. years of 1800 in England. Yet the Industrial Revolution has defied simple economic explanations or modeling. This paper seeks to set out the empirical parameters of the Industrial Revolution that any economic theory must encompass, and illustrate why this makes explaining the Industrial Revolution so difficult within the context of standard economic models and narratives.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationHandbook of Economic Growth
Number of pages46
PublisherElsevier
Publication date2014
Pages217-262
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2014
Externally publishedYes
SeriesHandbook of Economic Growth
Volume2
ISSN1574-0684

Keywords

  • Economic growth
  • Growth theory
  • Industrial revolution

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