Kenneth Carlaw

Professor

Economics
Office: SCI 263
Phone: 250.807.9264
Email: kenneth.carlaw@ubc.ca


Research Summary

Evolutionary economics applied to historical technological change and sustainable long term economic growth; application in policy analysis of economic growth, development and sustainability as well in the development of measurement methodology; analysis of issues of socially just wealth distribution.

Courses & Teaching

Macroeconomics; strategic thinking; economic growth; productivity and technological change.

Biography

Dr. Kenneth I. Carlaw is currently a Professor of Economics at the University of British Columbia, Canada. He received his Ph.D. (2000) from Simon Fraser University, Canada and has held lecturer and senior lecturer positions at the University of Canterbury.

Dr. Carlaw’s major research focuses are in evolutionary economics applied to historical technological change and sustainable long term economic growth and development. In particular he and his co-authors Richard Lipsey and Clifford Bekar have written extensively on the concept general purpose technologies (GPTs) and how they sustain the process of growth in human well being through millennia.

Dr. Carlaw and his colleagues have published a book on the subject titled Economic Transformations (2005) which was the co-winner of the 2006 Joseph Schumpeter Prize for the best work in evolutionary economics over the previous two years. He has also written extensively on productivity and economic policy related to innovation and technological change.

Degrees

PhD, Simon Fraser University

Research Interests & Projects

  1. Measurement of Complementarities and Spillovers in Technological Innovation: this research, which is funded by the Treasury Board Secretariat of Canada, Research and Policy Initiatives Assistance (RPIA) Program, explores methodology for technological innovation policy design, development, implementation and assessment.
  2. Darwinian Versus Newtonian Views of Economic Change: This is a Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) funded project which explores the theoretical and policy implications of ergodic versus non-ergodic processes in evolutionary versus new classical models of economic growth processes.
  3. Climate Justice Project: This project received 5 years of funding from a SSHRC CURA grant (ending in 2015) that enabled research into potential policy options that can address problems arising as a consequence of climate change in a socially just fashion. Carlaw is the stream leader in a line of research assessing the current level and future potential for ‘green jobs’ in B.C.

Selected Publications & Presentations

Carlaw, K. I. and R. G. Lipsey (2022) “Industrial Policy: The Coevolution of Public and Private Finance for Important Emerging and Evolving Technologies”, The Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Elements: Evolutionary Economics.

Carlaw, K. I. (2020) “Replication, Uncertainty, Complementarity, and Returns to Scale in the Production of Resilience”, Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, 176(2), 351-76.

Harris, L., J. Janmaat, M Evans and K.I. Carlaw (2018) “Negotiating the Frame for a Living Wage in Revelstoke BC: An Econ-Anthropological Approach”, Human Organization, 77(3).

Bekar, C.T., K.I. Carlaw and R.G. Lipsey (Dec., 2017) “General purpose technologies in theory, application and controversy: a review”, Journal of Evolutionary Economics, 28(5), 1005-1033.

Does History Matter?: Empirical Analysis of Evolutionary versus New Classical Views of the Economy Carlaw, K.I. and R.G. Lipsey in Long Term Economic Development (2013) Springer, A. Pyka and E. S. Andersen (eds.), 137-174.

Beyond the Hype: Intellectual Property and the Knowledge Society/ Knowledge Economy, Kenneth Carlaw, Les Oxley, Paul Walker, David Thorns, & Michael Nuth, in The Knowledge Economy and Lifelong Learning: A Critical Reader (2012), D.W. Livingstone and David Guile (eds.), 7-42.

Carlaw, K.I. and R.G. Lipsey (2012) “Does History Matter?: Empirical Analysis of Evolutionary versus New Classical Views of the Economy” Journal of Evolutionary Economics, 22(4), 735-766.

Carlaw, K.I. and R.G. Lipsey (2011) “Sustained Endogenous Growth Driven by Structured and Evolving General Purpose Technologies”, Journal of Evolutionary Economics, 21(4), 563-93.

Carlaw, K.I. and L. Oxley (2008) “Resolving the Productivity Paradox”, Mathematics and Computers in Simulation, 78(2-3), 313-16.

Carlaw, K.1., L. T. Oxley, D. Thorns, M. Nuth and P. Walker (2006) “Beyond the Hype: Intellectual Property and the Knowledge Society/Knowledge Economy”, Journal of Economic Surveys, 20(4), 643-90.

Carlaw, K. I. and R.G. Lipsey (2006) “GPT-Driven, Endogenous Growth”, Economic Journal 116, 155-74.

Carlaw, K. I. (2005) “Optimal Obsolescence” Mathematics and Computers in Simulation, 69(1 ), 21-45.

Lipsey, Richard G., Kenneth I. Carlaw and Cliff Bekar (2005) Economic Transformations: General Purpose Technologies and Long-run Economic Growth (Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK), ISBN 0-19-926776-6 978-0-19-926776-7.

Carlaw, K. I. (2005) “ICT and Australian Economic Performance” in E. Graff (ed.) Asia Pacific ProductivityConference Research Volume, Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, 85-120.

Lipsey, R. G. and K. I. Carlaw (2004) “Total Factor Productivity and the Measurement of Technological Change”, Canadian Joµrnal of Economics 37(4), 1118-50.

Carlaw, K. I. (2004) “Uncertainty and Complementarity Lead to Increasing Returns to Durability”, Journal or Economic Behaviour and Organization, 53(2), 261-282.

Carlaw, K. I. and S. Kosempel (2004) “The Sources of Economic Growth in Canada”, Economics of Innovation and New Technology, 13(4), 299-309.

Kosempel, S. and K. I. Carlaw (2003) “Accounting for Canada’s Economic Growth”, Journal of Economic Development, 28(2), 83-101.

Carlaw, K.I. and R. G. Lipsey (2003) “Productivity, Technology and Economic Growth: What is the relationship?” Journal of Economic Surveys, 17(3), 457-495.

George, D., L. Oxley and K. I. Carlaw (2003) “Economic Growth in Transition”, Journal of Economic Surveys, 17(3), 227-38.

Carlaw, K. I. and R.G. Lipsey (2002) “Externalities, complementarities and Sustained Economic Growth”, Research Policy, 31 (8-9), 1305-1315.

Lipsey, R. G. and K. I. Carlaw (2000) “What Does Total Factor Productivity Measure?” International Productivity Monitor, Centre for the Study of Living Standards, Ottawa, Canada, 1, 31-40.

Lipsey, R. G. and K. I. Carlaw (2000) “Technology Policy: Basic Concepts” in Edquist, C. and M. McKelvey (eds.) Systems of Innovation: Growth, Competitiveness and Employment (Edward Elgar: United Kingdom), 421-455.

Lipsey, R. G. and K. I. Carlaw (1998) “Technology Policies in Neo-classical and Structuralist-evolutionary Models,” STI Review, Special Issue on “New Rationale and Approaches in Technology and Innovation Policy”, No. 22., 31-74.

Lipsey, R. G., C. Bekar and K. I. Carlaw (1998) “What Requires Explanation?” in E. Helpman (ed) General Purpose Technologies and Economic Growth, MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 15-54.

Lipsey, R. G., C. Bekar and K. I. Carlaw (1998) “The Consequences of Changes in GPTs” in E. Helpman (ed.) General Purpose Technologies and Economic Growth, MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 193-218. Page 17/17

Lipsey, R. G. and K. I. Carlaw (1996) “A Structuralist View of Innovation Policy”, in P. Howitt (ed.) The Implications of Knowledge Based Growth for Microeconomic Policies, University of Calgary Press, Calgary, Canada, 255-338.

 

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