ABSTRACT
This is an appropriate time to take stock, as economists, ofour understand... ing of the determinants of the rate and direction of technical change. The 1960s through the 1980s were very productive ofnew theory and empirical insight into the process of technical change. In the 1960s and 1970s, major attention focused on the implications ofchanges in demand and in relative factor prices. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, attention shifted to evolu... tionary models inspired by a revival of interest in Schumpeter's insight into the sources of economic development. Since the early 1980s these have been complemented by the development ofhistorically grounded "path de... pendent" models of technical change.
