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Induced innovation theory and international agricultural development: A reassessment. Edited by BRUCE M. KOPPEL. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995. Pp. vi, 190. $32.50. ISBN 0-80184891-1. JEL 95-1358
Induced innovation theory attempts to extend the reach of economic analysis to the causes of technological and institutional change. The notion that technological change comprises endogenous ("induced") as well as exogenous ("autonomous") elements can be traced to Hicks and Pigou, but it gained prominence with the publication of Yujiro Hayami and Vernon Ruttan's Agricultural Development: An International Perspective (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press) in 1971, which argued that the very different paths of technological change in U.S. and Japanese agriculture were shaped by differences in the relative scarcity of land and labor. Subsequent work by these and other authors extended induced innovation theory to the analysis of institutional changes, ranging from tenancy contracts to the development of public-sector agricultural research systems.
The volume under review summarizes and reassesses induced innovation theory from a variety of perspectives. Many of the articles were written expressly for this book, and refer to each other, so that the whole hangs together better than do many edited volumes. The result provides a useful picture of the state of this particular art.
The book opens with an introduction by Koppel and then an account of the origins and development of induced innovation theory by Ruttan and Hayami. Of...