ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors draw on our own and related work, carried out within framework of induced innovation paradigm, to examine relationship between rapid population growth and technical and institutional change. Significance of the induced technical change hypothesis for economic development is that there are multiple paths of technical change available to society. The constraints imposed upon agricultural development by an inelastic supply of land may be offset by advances in biological technology. Interest in the relationship between population growth and technical change in both historical and contemporary preindustrial societies has been stimulated by the seminal work of Ester Boserup. In our own work, therefore, they were forced to turn to an attempt to acquire a more adequate understanding of the process of institutional change. The authors have illustrated the power of theory of induced innovation to advance our understanding of technical and institutional change in both industrial and pre-industrial societies.
