WP 2016-1
Capitalism, Technology and
a Green Global Golden Age:
The Role of History in Helping
to Shape the Future
Carlota Perez
April 2016
To be published as a chapter in Mazzucato and Jacobs (eds),
Rethinking Capitalism
, forthcoming in 2016
.
Capitalism, Technology and a Green Global Golden Age:
The Role of History in Helping to Shape the Future
Growth without technology or sustainability without growth? ............................................................. 1
Technological revolutions and economic development ......................................................................... 4
The history of technological revolutions ...................................................................................... 4
A regular pattern of diffusion ........................................................................................................ 6
Why we are now in the equivalent of the 1930s and 40s .......................................................... 8
ICT and the green direction ...................................................................................................................... 11
A very broad definition of 'green growth' .................................................................................. 12
A shift in consumer demand ....................................................................................................... 14
‘Green growth’, development, jobs and inequality ................................................................................ 16
The quality and profile of domestic and global demand ......................................................... 16
New sources of employment growth ......................................................................................... 18
Pendular shifts in income distribution ....................................................................................... 19
A radical reshaping of the policy framework ......................................................................................... 21
A mental paradigm shift ............................................................................................................... 21
Policy-making in the Deployment Period ................................................................................... 23
A clear socio-political choice ........................................................................................................ 25
Bibliography ............................................................................................................................................... 29
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Capitalism, Technology and a Green Global Golden Age:
The Role of History in Helping to Shape the Future