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1 - North America

The Rise of US Technological and Economic Leadership

from Part I - Regional Developments

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2021

By
Paul W. Rhode
Edited by
Stephen Broadberry  and
Kyoji Fukao
Stephen Broadberry
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
Kyoji Fukao
Affiliation:
Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo
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Summary

This chapter traces three grand transformations of the North American economy. The first process – the shift from a rural agricultural economy to an urban industrial economy and the emergence of ‘modern economic growth’ – began before 1870. The second process – the shift from growth based on increasing factors of production per person to growth based on enhancing the productivity of the factors – began at the turn of the twentieth century. It was tied to the emergence of the United States as a global economic leader. The third process – the shift from an internally focused industrial economy to a globally integrated, information-based economy – began after 1970. Focusing on these transformations complicates the story of balanced growth common in macro-growth accounts, but is crucial for our understanding of the growth of the North American economy.

Keywords

Economic growthcapital formationstructural transformationindustrial revolutionsinformation economy.
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Economic History of the Modern World , pp. 21 - 47
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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