The Scientific Revolution and Its Role in the Transition to Sustained Economic Growth

We analyze the role of the Scientific Revolution in the takeoff to sustained economic growth. Basic scientific knowledge is a necessary input in the production of applied knowledge, which, in turn, fuels productivity growth and leads to rising incomes. Subsequently, rising incomes instigate a fertility transition and rising educational investments. Together, the increasing stocks of basic scientific knowledge and human capital, and the concomitant reduction in fertility enable the takeoff to sustained economic growth. In regions where scientific inquiry is severely constrained - for example, because of religious reasons or because of oppressive rulers - the takeoff is delayed or might not occur at all. Our framework describes a mechanism for the latent transition towards the takeoff that could contribute to the understanding of why sustained economic growth emerged first in Europe