General Purpose Technologies and the Industrial Revolution

Did breakthroughs in core processes during the Industrial Revolution tend to generate furtherinnovations in downstream technologies? Here a theoretical model examines the effect of apolitical shock on a non-innovating society in which there is high potential willingness tocooperate. The result is regional specialization in the innovation process by degree ofcooperation. Tests with a zero-inflated Poisson specification indicate that 116 importantinnovations between 1700 and 1849 may be grouped into three categories: (1) GeneralPurpose Technologies (GPTs) tended to be generated in large states with standardizedlanguages following transition to pluralistic political systems; (2) GPTs in turn generatedspillovers for their regions in technologies where cooperation was necessary to integratedistinct fields of expertise; (3) however, GPTs discouraged downstream innovation in theirregions where such direct cooperation was not required...