Tunzelmann, Schumpeter, and the Hockey Stick

Abstract

The article reviews theoretical approaches and methods of conventional economics and economic history to address the fundamental question of why the world's economy has experienced unprecedented growth rates only after 1800, following millennial relative stagnation. The intellectual challenge put forward by economic historians and historians of technical change is to explain the role of technology broadly interpreted in affecting economic change, offering a richer picture than the mere accumulation of production factors. This includes the analysis of the processes leading to the accumulation of ‘inventive people’.