About the Talk
The Industrial Revolution can be characterised as an acceleration in rates of annual economic growth of income per capita from essentially zero up to the mid 17th century to around 1.8 per cent by the 20th century. It cannot readily be explained if knowledge is treated as a private or as a public good. We have previously shown that science can be considered as a novel good, namely a contribution good, which is a non-depletable good jointly available to those who have contributed to its creation. Here we suggest the Industrial Revolution can be modelled using a contribution good framework, characterised by the mutual contribution of knowledge by commercial competitors.
About the Speakers:
Terence Kealey is a professor of clinical biochemistry at the University of Buckingham in the United Kingdom, where he served as vice chancellor until 2014. As a clinical biochemist Dr. Kealey studied human experimental dermatology. He published around 45 original peer-reviewed papers and around 35 scientific reviews, also peer-reviewed. In 1996 he published his first book, The Economic Laws of Scientific Research, where he argued that, contrary to the conventional wisdom, governments need not fund science. His second book, Sex, Science and Profits (2008) argues that science is not a public good but, rather, is organized in invisible colleges, thereby making government funding irrelevant. Professor Kealey trained initially in medicine at Bart’s Hospital Medical School, London. He studied for his doctorate at Oxford University, where he worked first as a Medical Research Council Training Fellow and then as a Wellcome Senior Research Fellow in Clinical Science.
Martin Ricketts is Professor of Economic Organisation at the University. He graduated from the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne (1970) and has a DPhil from the University of York (1980). He has published in professional journals on the theory of the firm, aspects of public finance, the new institutional economics and housing policy. He has been on the academic staff of the University of Buckingham since 1977 and has held a number of visiting posts abroad, notably Visiting Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic and State University (VPI) in the USA, and has lectured widely in other countries. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts Manufactures and Commerce and was an Honorary Professor at Heriot-Watt University (1996-2006). He was Economic Director of the National Economic Development Office (UK) 1991-1992; Dean of the School of Business at the University of Buckingham (1993-1997) and Dean of Humanities (2001-2014).
