Nathan Rosenberg (November 22, 1927 – August 24, 2015) was an American

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...

specializing in the

history of technology The history of technology is the history of the invention of tools and techniques and is one of the categories of world history. Technology can refer to methods ranging from as simple as stone tools to the complex genetic engineering and info ...

Biography

Rosenberg earned his PhD from the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

in 1955, and taught at

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universit ...

(1955–1957), the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

(1957–1961),

Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and money ...

(1961–1964),

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

(1967–1969), the University of Wisconsin (1969–1974) and

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

(1974–), where he was the Fairleigh S. Dickinson, Jr. Professor Emeritus of Public Policy in the Department of Economics. In 1989 he was visiting

Pitt Professor of American History and Institutions The Pitt Professorship of American History and Institutions was established at the University of Cambridge on 5 February 1944 from a sum of £44,000 received from the Syndics of the Cambridge University Press in 1943 and augmented by a further £5,0 ...

at the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

. Rosenberg's contribution to understanding technological change was acknowledged by Douglass C. North in his Nobel Prize lecture entitled "Economic Performance through Time". In 1996 he was awarded the

Leonardo da Vinci Medal The Leonardo da Vinci Medal is the highest award of the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT), and was first given in 1962. In general this award is granted annually to scholars who have contributed outstandingly to the history of technology ...

, the highest award of the Society for the History of Technology. In 1986's ''How the West Grew Rich'', Rosenberg and co-author L.E. Birdzell, Jr. argued that Western Europe's economic success grew out of a loosening of political and religious controls, and that Western medieval life was not actually organized in castles, cathedrals, and cities; but that it was organized more in the rural areas in huts and in places with reliable access to food. This is why, the book states, most of the population was to some extent involved in agriculture and its related occupations of transporting produce from place to place. The importance of these ideas have since been more fully recognized by the discipline of international economic history. The Rosenberg-Birdzell hypothesis is that innovation is produced by economic competition among politically independent entities. This hypothesis is tested and supported by

Joel Mokyr Joel Mokyr (born 26 July 1946) is a Netherlands-born American-Israeli economic historian. He is a professor of economics and history at Northwestern University, where he has taught since 1974; in 1994 he was named the Robert H. Strotz Professor o ...

in his contribution to the

Festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...

-issue of ''

Research Policy Science policy is concerned with the allocation of resources for the conduct of science towards the goal of best serving the public interest. Topics include the funding of science, the careers of scientists, and the translation of scientific disc ...

'', which was published in honor of Nathan Rosenberg in 1994.Joel Mokyr, "Cardwell's Law and the political economy of technological progress," ''

'', Volume 23, Issue 5, (September 1994): 561–574.

Publications

Books

* ''Economic Planning in the British Building Industry, 1945–1949'', 1960 * ''The American System of Manufactures: The Report of the Committee on the Machinery of the United States 1855, and the Special Reports of George Wallis and Joseph Whitworth, 1854'', 1969 * ''The Economics of Technological Change: Selected Readings'', 1971 * ''Technology and American Economic Growth'', 1972 * ''Perspectives on Technology'', 1976 * ''The Britannia Bridge: The Generation and Diffusion of Technological Knowledge'' (with

Walter G. Vincenti Walter Guido Vincenti (April 20, 1917 – October 11, 2019) was an American engineer who worked in the field of aeronautics, designing planes that could fly at hypersonic speed. He was elected as a member of several scientific societies, incl ...

), 1978 * ''Inside the Black Box: Technology and Economics'', 1983 * ''International Technology Transfer: Concepts, Measures, and Comparisons'' (editor, with

Claudio Frischtak Claudio is an Italian and Spanish first name. In Portuguese it is accented Cláudio. In Catalan and Occitan it is Claudi, while in Romanian it is Claudiu. Origin and history Claudius was the name of an eminent Roman gens, the most important m ...

), 1985 * ''The Positive Sum Strategy: Harnessing Technology for Economic Growth'' (editor, with

Ralph Landau Ralph Landau (May 19, 1916 – April 5, 2004) was a chemical engineer and entrepreneur active in the chemical and petrochemical industries. He is considered one of the top fifty foundational chemical engineers of the first half of the 20th century ...

), 1986 * ''How The West Grew Rich: The Economic Transformation Of The Industrial World'' (with L. E. Birdzell), 1986 * ''Technology and the Pursuit of Economic Growth'' (with David C. Mowery), 1991 * ''Technology and the Wealth of Nations'' (editor, with Ralph Landau and David C. Mowery), 1992 * ''Exploring the Black Box: Technology, Economics, and History'', 1994 * ''The Emergence of Economic Ideas: Essays in the History of Economics'', 1994 * ''Paths of Innovation: Technological Change in 20th-Century America'' (with David C. Mowery), 1998 * ''Chemicals and Long-Term Economic Growth: Insights from the Chemical Industry'' (editor, with

Ashish Arora Ashish Arora is an Indian structural biologist and a senior scientist at Central Drug Research Institute. He did his postgraduate studies at Rajasthan University and post-doctoral work at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Goet ...

and Ralph Landau), 2000 * ''Schumpeter and the Endogeneity of Technology: Some American Perspectives'', 2000 (The Graz Schumpeter Lectures)

Notes

External links

* * *
Nathan Rosenberg, Stanford professor and expert on the economic history of technology, dead at 87
- September 1, 2015 {{DEFAULTSORT:Rosenberg, Nathan Innovation economists 1927 births 2015 deaths University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni Writers from Passaic, New Jersey Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences Academics of the University of Cambridge Stanford University Department of Economics faculty American economic historians Historians of economic thought Historians of technology Leonardo da Vinci Medal recipients Economists from New Jersey Historians from New Jersey