Productivity and Technical Change

Fülszöveg

Productivity and Technical Change
W. E. G. SALTER
With an Addendum byW. B. REDDAWAV
Professor of Political Economy and
Director, Department of Applied Economics University of Cambridge
As a consequence of full employment in modern industrial societies, the level and growth of productivity has acquired central importance in economic theory and public policy. It is the declared aim of governments to raise the productivity of industry but without an understanding of the basic causes of increased productivity there can be little certainty or agreement on the most appropriate policy measures.
The difficulties inherent in this problem are enhanced by the fact that beyond productivity lie all the dynamic forces of economic life: the institutional pattéra of society, technical progress, accumulation, enterprise—areas where understanding is sometimes rudimentary. But it is essential to understand the relationships between productivity and these dynamic forces for change.
This book... Tovább

Fülszöveg

Productivity and Technical Change
W. E. G. SALTER
With an Addendum byW. B. REDDAWAV
Professor of Political Economy and
Director, Department of Applied Economics University of Cambridge
As a consequence of full employment in modern industrial societies, the level and growth of productivity has acquired central importance in economic theory and public policy. It is the declared aim of governments to raise the productivity of industry but without an understanding of the basic causes of increased productivity there can be little certainty or agreement on the most appropriate policy measures.
The difficulties inherent in this problem are enhanced by the fact that beyond productivity lie all the dynamic forces of economic life: the institutional pattéra of society, technical progress, accumulation, enterprise—areas where understanding is sometimes rudimentary. But it is essential to understand the relationships between productivity and these dynamic forces for change.
This book examines the relationship between productivity and technical.change, first with a theoretical analysis of the relationships between movements of productivity, prices, costs, wages and invest-ments in industries experiencing a continuous flow of new techniques. The book stresses the role of capital investment as a vehicle of technical change. The second part of the book is empirical and examines the relationships between movements of productivity in a number of British and American industries.
The book is a classic study in this extremely important area of economics.
Alsó issued in cloth as University of Cambridge Department of Applied Economics Monograph 6 Vissza