Demystifying The Economics of Technology: Perspectives on Development with Reflections on India
Amit Shovon Ray
Price
1150
ISBN
9789383166404
Language
English
Pages
223
Format
Hardback
Dimensions
140 x 216 mm
Year of Publishing
2025
Territorial Rights
Restricted
Imprint
Social Science Press
Catalogues

Technology has long been recognized to be crucially important for economic growth and prosperity of societies. The role of technology in driving the world economy has magnified manifolds over the last few decades, with the emergence of a new economic, institutional, and technological architecture steering us towards a truly knowledge driven economy and society. The concept of technology has attracted the scholarly attention of economists for over a century, mainly exploring what constitutes technological change, and its consequences for economic development.

This book Demystifying the Economics of Technology: Perspectives on Development with Reflections from India is an attempt to introduce this extensive scholarly (and technical) literature on the economics of technology to interested readers. The book interprets how economists conceptualize technology through multiple layers of definitions and concepts. It also explores perspectives on technology through the writings of the classical economic thinkers as well as the emergence of technology in mainstream economic theory. Economic models of technology creation, technology diffusion and policy choices have all been explained at length. The book will address two popularly debated issues surrounding the economics of technology, namely the debate on Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) and the role of public funded research. Finally, it will focus on the expanding literature locating technology in a discourse on economic development, with reflections from India’s experience with technology.

The book will be of interest to economists and non-economists – students, teachers, researchers, policymakers, journalists, engineers, scientists, technologists and corporate managers.

Amit Shovon Ray, Professor of Economics at the Centre for International Trade & Development at Jawaharlal Nehru University (New Delhi), is a development economist specializing in global economic issues like technology, IPR, trade and health. He was educated at Presidency College (Kolkata) and at Oxford University from where he received his DPhil in Economics in 1988. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health (UK) in 2006. He has published several articles in reputed international journals and a few monographs. He served as Director, Centre for Development Studies (Trivandrum) and has been a consultant to The World Bank (Washington DC) and India’s Planning Commission.