Abstract
The labor market and technological change have influenced each other's evolution over the past four hundred years. High wages have led to the invention of capital intensive technology that has saved labor. Sometimes the capital intensive technology has led to general economic growth and higher wages, while at other times the new technology has increased wage inequality, which, in turn, has led to stagnation in the average wage. The expansion of the British economy under mercantilism (1620-1770) and the age of American industrial pre-eminence (1850-1970) are examples of the first tendency, while the industrial revolution (1870-1850) and recent service revolution (1970-present) are examples of the second. The development of modern science and mission oriented research and development in the last 150 years have complicated the feedback between wages and the labor market.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Handbook for Historical Economics |
| Editors | Alberto Bissen, Giovanni Federico |
| Publisher | Elsevier |
| Pages | 795-824 |
| Number of pages | 29 |
| State | Published - Jan 1 2021 |