Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital: The Dynamics of Bubbles and Golden Ages Author: Carlota Perez | Language: English | ISBN:
1843763311 | Format: PDF
Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital: The Dynamics of Bubbles and Golden Ages Description
"Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital" presents a novel interpretation of the good and bad times in the economy, taking a long-term perspective and linking technology and finance in an original and convincing way. Carlota Perez draws upon Schumpeter's theories of the clustering of innovations to explain why each technological revolution gives rise to a paradigm shift and a "New Economy" and how these "opportunity explosions", focused on specific industries, also lead to the recurrence of financial bubbles and crises. These findings are illustrated with examples from the past two centuries: the industrial revolution, the age of steam and railways, the age of steel and electricity, the emergence of mass production and automobiles, and the current information revolution/knowledge society. By analyzing the changing relationship between finance capital and production capital during the emergence, diffusion and assimilation of new technologies throughout the global economic system, this book sheds light on some of the most pressing economic problems of today.
- Paperback: 224 pages
- Publisher: Edward Elgar Pub (April 2003)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1843763311
- ISBN-13: 978-1843763314
- Product Dimensions: 0.8 x 6.2 x 9.2 inches
- Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital by Carlota Perez describes the interaction between the technical innovation and long-term economic cycles. Her book covers many of the same topics as The Innovators Dilemma (Clayton Christensen, Harvard) and Only the Paranoid Survive (Andy Grove, Intel). Professor Perez approaches the subject as an academic economist (University of Sussex, UK), using the early 20th century work of Nikolai Kondratiev on long economic cycles (40-50 years) as a point of departure, whereas Christensen and Grove focus primarily on the near-term (2-5 years) implications of innovation on the individual firm. Her main points are summarized below.
The world has experienced five major technical-economic cycles:
(1) 1771 - , The First Industrial Revolution in Britain, based on mechanization of the cotton industry.
(2) 1829 - , The Age of Steam and Railways
(3) 1875 - , The Age of Steel and Electricity
(4) 1908 - , The Age of Oil, the Automobile, and Mass Production
(5) 1971 - , The Age of Information and Telecommunications
The starting dates are all approximate and were selected based on some catalytic event or "Big Bang", such as the invention of Intel's first microprocessor in 1971. (Note to a scientist friend: I believe that Prof Perez chose the above dates and events based on their economic impact rather than their scientific impact. Thus, the 5th age could be dated from the invention of the vacuum tube or the radio but these events had less economic impact than the microprocessor. Also, these cycles certainly overlapped, with a new age gathering momentum as its predecessor lost it. Thus, the vacuum tube and radio were key predecessor events leading to the 5th age.
I think I've read almost all the books written on the long-term dynamics of technology. Most of them are quite predictable -- a long list of important inventions. This book by Carlota Perez is different. It is one of the most interesting histories of technology, if not the most informative, because it dwells on the dynamics of the technology/social/economic system itself. It takes a decided cybernetic view of technology by demonstrating that technology is a very large system that progresses through "paradigms." And like paradigms in science or the humanities, paradigms in technology exhibit step-like bursts of normal advancement punctuated by revolutionary change. This long cycle of ordinary improvement capped by rapid cataclysmic change and marked by the inevitable bubble phase and then productive recovery has marked all cycles of technology in the last two hundred years. That's Perez's thesis, and the book is very thorough in making a case for this.
Most tomes with theoretical goals like this are horribly dry, dense, wordy, and well... boring. This book is not. Perez writes with amazing vigor, and grace, not taking an extra unneeded word, and not repeating herself.
I tend to shy away from theories that depend on believing in long cycles or recurring forces, but in this case Perez has persuaded me that this cycle in technology is real. I am delighted by this surprise. According to theory laid in out TECHNOLOGICAL REVOLUTIONS we, in 2005, are in the last throes of a technological bubble and just preceding the next period of productive improvement and profit from the disruptive technologies in the 1990s. In other words, instead of the bubble signaling the demise of these recent technologies, it's really saying, we ain't seen nothing yet.
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