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Conclusion

Technological progress has profoundly reshaped the economic landscape over the last 200 years. It is easy to understand how the emergence of Watt’s steam engine, Cromp­ton’s cotton spinning mule, and Cort’s puddling and rolling process for iron transformed the industrial landscape during the 1800s.

Likewise, it is easy to appreciate how the in­troduction of electricity, petrochemicals and the internal combustion engine changed manufacturing in the 1900s. Less well understood, however, is the impact that techno­logical advance has had on the household sector. In 1800 the typical women labored in a rural home with 7, largely uneducated, kids. Today she is almost certain to live in an urban area, likely to work in the market sector, and have only two children who on av­erage get 13 years of formal schooling. Times have changed, and a little growth theory can go a long way toward understanding this process.

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Source: Aghion Philippe, Durlauf Steven N. (eds.). Handbook of Economic Growth. Volume 1. Part B.North-Holland,2005. — p. 1061-1822. 2005
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