"Knowledge and Industrial Development: The Stakes By "the first knowledge economy" we refer to the era of the Industrial Revolution, from roughly the 1760s to the 1850s, first in Britain and then in selected parts of northern and western Europe, with particular attention to Belgium"--

In the centuries leading up to the Industrial Revolution, Western Europe gradually pulled ahead of other world regions in terms of technological creativity, population growth, and income per capita. We argue that superior institutions for the creation and dissemination of productive knowledge...