Rapid Growth and Relative Decline

Booknews

Challenges conventional equilibrium analysis to look at growth and structural change as path dependent processes, showing that, under favorable circumstances, initial fast growth fosters subsequently fast growth, but that endogenously induced technological and institutional changes can cause the dynamics of self-reinforcing fast growth to break down. Reference to the performance of the British economy since 1780 demonstrates the relevance of this path-dependent model for the analysis of economic growth in the real world. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.