Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T18:42:15.374Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

What came first, the chicken or the egg?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2019

Lionel Artige
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, University of Liège, 4000 Liège, Belgiumlionel.artige@uliege.belvn@uliege.behttps://www.researchgate.net/profile/Lionel_Artigehttps://www.researchgate.net/profile/Leif_Neuss
Todd Lubart
Affiliation:
University of Paris Descartes, 92100 Boulogne Billancourt Cedex, France. Todd.lubart@parisdescartes.frhttps://www.researchgate.net/profile/
Leif van Neuss
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, University of Liège, 4000 Liège, Belgiumlionel.artige@uliege.belvn@uliege.behttps://www.researchgate.net/profile/Lionel_Artigehttps://www.researchgate.net/profile/Leif_Neuss

Abstract

Current empirical evidence does not seem to confirm that an improvement in living conditions is the cause of the shift in the human mindset toward innovation and long-term risky investment. However, it may well be one of the conditions for greater tolerance of income inequality in exchange for a steady increase in average income.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Broadberry, S., Campbell, B. M. S., Klein, A., Overton, M. & van Leeuwen, B. (2015) British economic growth, 1270–1870. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Clark, G. (2007) A farewell to alms: A brief economic history of the world. Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Clark, G. (2012) Review essay: The enlightened economy. An economic history of Britain, 1700–1850 by Joel Mokyr. Journal of Economic Literature 50(1):8595.Google Scholar
de Vries, J. (2008) The industrious revolution: Consumer behavior and the household economy, 1650 to the present. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Goldstone, J. A. (2015) The great and little divergence: Where lies the true onset of modern economic growth? George Mason University and Woodrow Wilson Center, working paper, Center for Global Policy.Google Scholar
Maddison, A. (2007) The world economy: Vol. 1: A millennial perspective, Vol. 2: Historical statistics. Academic Foundation.Google Scholar
Meisenzahl, R. R. & Mokyr, J. (2012) The rate and direction of invention in the British industrial revolution: Incentives and institutions. In: The rate and direction of inventive activity revisited, ed. Lerner, J. & Stern, S., pp. 443–79. University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Mokyr, J. (1999) Editor's introduction: The new economic history and the Industrial Revolution. In: The British Industrial Revolution: An economic perspective, second ed., ed. Mokyr, J., pp. 1127. Westview.Google Scholar
Mokyr, J. (2016) A culture of growth: The origins of the modern economy. Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
North, D. E. (1990) Institutions, institutional change and public performance. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
van Zanden, J. L. (2008) The long road to the Industrial Revolution. The European economy in a global perspective, 1000–1800. Brill.Google Scholar
Wootton, D. (2015) The invention of science. A new history of the scientific revolution. Allen Lane/Penguin.Google Scholar
Wootton, D. (2017) Science and the reformation. Nature 550:454–55.Google Scholar
Wootton, D. (2018) Power, pleasure and profit: Insatiable appetites from Machiavelli to Madison. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.Google Scholar