Prospects of Regional Employment Scanning of Technological Options

摘要

In recent years there has been a growing body of research on the relation between economic development and the pace of technological innovation. This research is based on the assumption that the present economic stagnation is not the result of short term macro-economic maladjustments but structural in the sense that long term trends in the direction and pace of certain technological developments lie at its roots. While much of the discussion and econometric research has been on the existence of a measurable 50-year Kondratieff cycle, the more meaningful starting point for the present research project is that factors inherent in technological development cause discontinuities which, by themselves or in combination, result in structural problems in economic development. In other words: technical development in the long term is not a constant, as is generally assumed in macro-economic models. There are good reasons to believe that such variables as the rate of productivity increase and acceptance of new products on the market vary from one time period to another.