ABSTRACT OF PAPER
Title: Technical change and technological learning after the Cambridge capital controversy
Author: Knell Mark
Intro: There are many different aspects of the Cambridge controversy over the theory of capital that have not yet been fully explored. One focus of disagreement that remains pertinent today is the measurement of capital, and its corollary, the measurement of technical change and technological learning. This session considers the controversy not mearly a measurement problem, but one that puts capital (either as a stock or flow of commodities) in the context of the choice of new products, techniques, forms of organization, etc., and against the backgound of the creation, diffusion and use of new knowledge by enterprises. As controversy, the Harrod-Robinson-Sraffa concept of capital, technical change and technological learning provides an alternative to Walrasian-based (including intertemporal equilibrium and empirical implications) models. Objective: Models built in the Classical-Sraffian tradition contain the possibility of complex dynamics, and are especially relevant to the Cambridge capital controversies. Yet the nature of technical change and technological learning (especially novelty) remains elusive: “there is no agreement on what the word ‘technology’ means, no overall theory of how technologies come into being, no deep understanding of what “innovation” consists of, and no theory of evolution for technology”. (W. Brian Arthur). This paper reconsiders different ways in which economists imagined (or modeled) the quantity of (heterogeneous) capital when there is technical change and technological learning. It places emphasis on “capital” and “technology” as central concepts in the history of ideas, while retaining their relevance for the Cambridge capital controversies when complex economic behaviors are present.
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