Attitudes, Aptitudes, and the Roots of the Great Enrichment; Joel Mokyr (Northwestern University)

Abstract

Europe’s exceptional economic performance after the Industrial Revolution has been dubbed “the Great Divergence” and the “Great Enrichment.” Its causes have been long in dispute. The Industrial Revolution came after three centuries of slow but powerful cultural change during which certain European elites became increasingly willing and capable of producing economic and technological progress overcoming a multitude of obstacles and forms of resistance. These cultural developments can be summarized as “attitudes” and “aptitudes”.