Intellectual Property Rights, the Industrial Revolution, and the Beginnings of Modern Economic Growth

• Published in: The American economic review Vol. 99; no. 2; pp. 349 - 355
• Main Author: Mokyr, Joel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Nashville American Economic Association 01.05.2009
• Subjects: 18th century; British Industrial Revolution; Economic growth; Economic history; Economic theory; Europe; Historical analysis; Industrial Revolution; Innovations; Institutions; Intellectual property; Intellectual property law; Intellectual property rights; Intellectual Property Rights and Economic Growth in the Long Run; Inventions; Inventors; Monopoly; Motivation; Patent law; Society; Studies; Technological change; Technological innovation; United Kingdom > UK

The importance of the patent system in the British Industrial Revolution has to be scaled down. Inventors were not all motivated primarily by a desire to maximize income: the "two sharp spurs that quicken invention and animate application," as William Shipley, the founder of the society of...