SCIENCE, INVENTION AND ECONOMIC GROWTH.

This article analyzes the role of technological change as a contributor to economic growth. Increasingly, economists have become more confident of their ability to deal with technological events in economic terms. This is evidenced by the publication of the book "Invention and Economic Growth," by Jacob Schmookler in 1966. Essentially, Schmookler asserted that, given the state of science the supply of inventions is, in effect, perfectly elastic, and at the same price, in all industries. The author argued that inventions are not equally possible in all industries. This is due to an intervening principle: the differential development of the state of sub-disciplines of science and bodies of useful knowledge. In this respect, the author concluded that the study or failure is essential to a determination of the role of supply side variables in the inventive process.