Inside the Black Box: Technology and Economics [Paperback]

Nathan Rosenberg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 28, 1983

Economists have long treated technological phenomena as events transpiring inside a black box and, on the whole, have adhered rather strictly to a self-imposed ordinance not to inquire too seriously into what transpires inside that box. The purpose of Professor Rosenberg's work is to break open and examine the contents of the black box. In so doing, a number of important economic problems be powerfully illuminated. The author clearly shows how specific features of individual technologies have shaped a number of variables of great concern to economists: the rate of productivity improvement, the nature of learning processes underlying technological change itself, the speed of technology transfer, and the effectiveness of government policies that are intended to influence technologies in particular ways. The separate chapters of this book reflect a primary concern with some of the distinctive aspects of industrial technologies in the twentieth century, such as the increasing reliance upon science, but also the considerable subtlety and complexity of the dialectic between science and technology. Other concerns include the rapid growth in the development of costs associated with new technologies as well as the difficulty of predicting the eventual performance characteristics of newly emerging technologies.

Editorial Reviews

Book Description

Attempts to reveal how specific features of individual technologies have shaped a number of variables of great concern to economists: the rate of productivity improvement; the nature of the learning process underlying technological change; the speed of technology transfer; and the effectiveness of influential government policies.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (January 28, 1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521273676
• ISBN-13: 978-0521273671
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #954,799 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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3 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars thecnology and environmental history, June 8, 2000

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maria-antònia - See all my reviews

This review is from: Inside the Black Box: Technology and Economics (Paperback)

To know what happens in and out of the black box is to know what is the thecnological change not only like a cuantitative or monetarian problem but like a problem in relation with the natural resources and the environmental problems. The Rosenberg's concept have had a great acceptacion all over the historical and economical research -by Deborah Fitgerald, on the study of the relationship betwen science and agriculture (the animals are more thecnoeconomics than real animals), or by Naredo, on the study of the relationship between fertilitzers, food and consumers. The book also is in the line of Kranzberg's laws, and the reflexions of the environmental history (LAtour, Merchant, Haraway, Keller, etc.) -the thecnology travel by packages, it depends of the political and institutional factors and his failure or acceptation depens on the reception context -investigation and difusion.