Abstract
by market demand. Yet much remains to be said in favor of an older view that the rate and direction of innovation are in large part determined by the internal logic of events within the history of applied science and technology.' At any point in time, the innovative efforts within a given industry (or complex of related industries) are concentrated on a number of distinct, identifiable problems. While demand surely plays a role in isolating these problems, often a focal point for innovative activity arises as a direct consequence of a previous innovation which generates imbalances in the production process. Other focal points recur frequently because each represents a problem which in some loosely-defined sense engineers and applied scientists know how to solve. Experience with cognate problems and the nature of engineering training furnish the heuristics for problem-solving of particular kinds, and thus the supply of potential innovations is in part determined by the structure of experience and knowledge. One important focal point for innovative effort involves increasing the range of output over which economies of scale are attainable.
Keywords
Scale (ratio)EconomicsTechnical changeEconometricsGeographyMacroeconomicsCartography
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Publication Info
- Year
- 1977
- Type
- article
- Volume
- 44
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 208-208
- Citations
- 51
- Access
- Closed
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Cite This
Richard C. Levin
(1977).
Technical Change and Optimal Scale: Some Evidence and Implications.
Southern Economic Journal
, 44
(2)
, 208-208.
https://doi.org/10.2307/1057575
Identifiers
- DOI
- 10.2307/1057575