Technological Change and the Environment

Chapter 13

Induced Institutional Innovation

Vernon W. Ruttan

13.1   Introduction

Technical change is increasingly generated by activities carried out in industrial research laboratories, agricultural experiment stations, and research universities—institutions that have become pervasive during the past century. Changes in resource endowments, cultural endowments, and technology have been an important source of institutional change. In attempting to understand institutional change, I employ a model that is similar to the model of induced technical change discussed in Chapter 2 of this volume. Institutional change, like technical change, is viewed as largely endogenous—as induced by changes in physical, social, and economic environments.¹

The purpose ...