Learning effects and the pace of technological change: The case of the midwestern farm implement industry, 1850-1890

摘要

Economic historians seem well-equipped to understand the consequences of technological change. They are less able, however, to explain the sources of invention and the evolution of new techniques.;Accordingly, this dissertation makes use of over 4,000 patents in identifying the institutional environment that stimulated the growth of technological change in the midwestern farm implement industry from 1850 through 1890. It argues that the evolution of products and firms that typified the industry stimulated the growth of learning effects which, in turn, led to a rising pace and volume of invention.;Chapter One identifies three distinct forms of learning effects: learning by doing, learning through others, and learning through use and sales. The content, and relative importance, of these learning effects evolved over three stages: (I) Firm and Product Creation, 1850-60; (II) Firm and Product Enhancement, 1860-70; and (III) Firm and Product Maturation, 1870-90.;Subsequent chapters delineate the changes in learning and invention that demarcate each stage. Within these stages the forms of learning complemented one another, imparting a dynamic quality to technological change.;Chapter Two links the genesis of learning effects to the creation of firms and products within the implement industry. These nascent firms and products embodied the knowledge and skills that fostered technological change. Hence, patented inventions accumulated as learning transpired, primarily at the site of production.;Chapter Three demonstrates that as the industry expanded and products were refined, inventive abilities were diffused as existing firms grew and as others were created. These newer firms emerged in close geographic proximity to entrenched establishments. Thus, a pattern of "localized learning" burgeoned as interpersonal communication and labor mobility grew in particular counties. Such counties tended to sustain themselves as "pockets of invention".;After 1870, firms organized and integrated their efforts to acquire technological knowledge and useable patents. These efforts, detailed in Chapter Four, proved remarkably successful. Implement producers obtained dozens of inventions via the assignment or licensing of patents, and by hiring laborers who had become professional inventors. As a result, a market for technology emerged within the industry.;This market was, itself, largely localized. Indeed, across the three stages, learning and invention were symbiotically linked to the economic geography of firm and product development.