Abstract
IN a [contribution to the discussion on “The Need for a Technique of Economic Change” arranged by the Department of Industrial Co-opera tion of Section F (Economic Science and Statistics) at the Aberdeen meeting of the British Association, Mr. N. F. Hall examined the more specifically economic problems which arise as a consequence of technological improvements. Economics, like other sciences, he pointed out, has in the past made progress by adopting the well-tried method of limiting the number of variables in any problem under review. The necessity for the limitation of variables has resulted in the development of the idea of the ‘Stationary State’, which has been the most fruitful abstraction for purposes of economic analysis. As soon, however, as one or more of our hypothetical constants becomes a variable, the stimulus of a change in population or increasing technological knowledge alters our simple stationary State into a dynamic system.
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Economic Problems of Technological Progress. Nature 134, 579–580 (1934). https://doi.org/10.1038/134579a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/134579a0