Concluding Remarks

“Technical change”, one commentator remarked, “is like God. It is much discussed, worshipped by some, rejected by others, but little understood” (Thompson 1984: 243). While this is still somewhat true, the efforts of several generations of economists have not been in vain. Today we know a great deal more about technical change and innova­tions than previous generations did, but we also have a better idea of how much we don’t know yet. As is quite common in research, while the number of old questions we can answer increases, the number of new questions we cannot as yet increases more rapidly.

David Haas, Heinz D. Kurz, Nicole Kathrin Palan, Andreas Rainer, Marlies Schutz and Rita Strohmaier