Journal of Economic Literature
ISSN 0022-0515 (Print) | ISSN 2328-8175 (Online)
Commanding Nature by Obeying Her: A Review Essay on Joel Mokyr's A Culture of Growth
Journal of Economic Literature
vol. 58,
no. 3, September 2020
(pp. 777–92)
Abstract
Why is modern society capable of cumulative innovation? In A Culture of Growth: The Origins of the Modern Economy, Joel Mokyr persuasively argues that sustained technological progress stemmed from a change in cultural beliefs. The change occurred gradually during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and was fostered by an intellectual elite that formed a transnational community and adopted new attitudes toward the creation and diffusion of knowledge, setting the foundation for the ethos of modern science. The book is a significant contribution to the growing literature that links culture and economics. This review discusses Mokyr's historical analysis in relation to the following questions: What is culture and how should we use it in economics? How can culture explain modern economic growth? Will the culture of growth that caused modern prosperity persist in the future?Citation
Spolaore, Enrico. 2020. "Commanding Nature by Obeying Her: A Review Essay on Joel Mokyr's A Culture of Growth." Journal of Economic Literature, 58 (3): 777–92. DOI: 10.1257/jel.20191460Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- N00 Economic History: General
- N13 Economic History: Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations: Europe: Pre-1913
- N33 Economic History: Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy: Europe: Pre-1913
- O30 Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights: General
- O52 Economywide Country Studies: Europe
- Z10 Cultural Economics; Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology: General