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The First Industrial Revolution: Resolving the Slow Growth/Rapid Industrialization Paradox

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  • Nicholas Crafts

    (London School of Economics,)

Abstract

The paper reviews recent attempts to quantify the British industrial revolution. It concludes that the episode was one of rapid industrialization but modest growth. To a considerable extent this is explained by the early adoption of capitalist farming and the weak impact of steam on productivity growth. However, this should not detract from a marked acceleration in the rate of technological change by the second quarter of the 19th century. This may be explicable in an endogenous innovation framework in terms of a reduced cost of accessing useful knowledge. Models of long-run growth should take this enhanced technological capability seriously. (JEL:N23) Copyright (c) 2005 The European Economic Association.

Suggested Citation

  • Nicholas Crafts, 2005. "The First Industrial Revolution: Resolving the Slow Growth/Rapid Industrialization Paradox," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 3(2-3), pages 525-534, 04/05.
    • Handle: RePEc:tpr:jeurec:v:3:y:2005:i:2-3:p:525-534
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Jaume Ventura & Hans-Joachim Voth, 2015. "Debt into growth: How sovereign debt accelerated the first Industrial Revolution," Economics Working Papers 1483, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
    2. Nico Voigtländer & Hans-Joachim Voth, 2006. "Why England? Demographic factors, structural change and physical capital accumulation during the Industrial Revolution," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 11(4), pages 319-361, December.
    3. McCloskey, Deirdre N., 2013. "Tunzelmann, Schumpeter, and the Hockey Stick," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(10), pages 1706-1715.
    4. Nico Voigtländer & Joachim Voth, 2005. "Why England? Demand, growth and inequality during the Industrial Revolution," Economics Working Papers 857, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, revised Dec 2006.
    5. Leandro Prados de la Escosura & Tamás Vonyó & Ilya B. Voskoboynikov, 2021. "Accounting For Growth In History," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(3), pages 655-669, July.
    6. Bernard C. Beaudreau, 2023. "A Pull–Push Theory of Industrial Revolutions," International Advances in Economic Research, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 29(4), pages 303-317, November.
    7. John Foster, 2015. "Energy, Knowledge and Economic Growth," Economic Complexity and Evolution, in: Andreas Pyka & John Foster (ed.), The Evolution of Economic and Innovation Systems, edition 127, pages 9-39, Springer.
    8. Jakob Madsen & James Ang & Rajabrata Banerjee, 2010. "Four centuries of British economic growth: the roles of technology and population," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 15(4), pages 263-290, December.
    9. Christopher Kennedy, 2021. "A biophysical model of the industrial revolution," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 25(3), pages 663-676, June.
    10. Oleg S. Sukharev, 2022. "Industrial growth and technological prospects," Journal of New Economy, Ural State University of Economics, vol. 23(1), pages 6-23, April.
    11. Aki Tomizawa & Li Zhao & Geneviève Bassellier & David Ahlstrom, 2020. "Economic growth, innovation, institutions, and the Great Enrichment," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 37(1), pages 7-31, March.
    12. Crafts, Nicholas & O’Rourke, Kevin Hjortshøj, 2014. "Twentieth Century Growth*This research has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) / ERC grant agreement no. 249546.," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 6, pages 263-346, Elsevier.
    13. Oleg S. Sukharev, 2024. "Development of Russia’s industry: Some regularities and prospects," Journal of New Economy, Ural State University of Economics, vol. 25(1), pages 6-25, April.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • N23 - Economic History - - Financial Markets and Institutions - - - Europe: Pre-1913

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