Essays on the origins of modern economic growth.

摘要

This thesis is concerned with the origins of modern economic growth, dealing with a fundamental discontinuity in the process of world economic development: the Industrial Revolution and the emergence of modern economic growth.;The first chapter argues that, in spite of slow economic growth, the Industrial Revolution was a period in which there was a discontinuity in the driving forces of modern economic growth. Nevertheless, empirical evidence indicates that temporary growth spurts occurred in several pre-industrial economies. Micro and macro data also suggest that there was another discontinuity in the driving forces of the demographic transition and modern economic growth, involving a change in fertility decisions. Cross-country regressions indicate that improvements in human capital were fundamental for the emergence of modern economic growth.;The second chapter uses an endogenous structural breaks procedure that allows us to confront two alternative views of the Industrial Revolution. The tests are carried out for two periods: 1700--1800 and 1800--1850. The empirical results show that structural breaks occurred in most industries throughout the period, suggesting that growth was pervasive during the period and not localized in the iron and cotton industries. The econometric results also indicate that, for the period 1700--1800 the population variables underwent structural breaks earlier than the industrial variables. A vector autoregression (VAR), impulse response functions and causality tests are used in order to further understand the relationship between industrial output and population.;The third chapter argues that the fundamental feature of the first Industrial Revolution was a reorganization of the British economy originated by the development of an organizational general purpose technology, the factory system. During the Industrial Revolution there was both slow per capita GDP growth and pervasive innovation because it took time for the investment in organizational capital to be fully realized and a process of social learning to be completed. In spite of low rates of growth, the organizational revolution was crucial for the emergence of modern economic growth.