The Economics of Speed

Bernard C. Beaudreau argues that economics has never properly examined the nuts and bolts of production, and that this omission explains several puzzles the discipline cannot otherwise solve. The publisher describes the book as the first to look at production processes at that level of detail, and as proposing a truly consilient approach to modelling them, one that goes beyond the vague principles found in standard economics and instead stays consistent with what the applied mechanics and engineering literature shows. The organising claim of the title is that machine speed is the key factor in productivity, so the rate at which physical processes can be driven, rather than abstract inputs considered alone, sets the limit on how much output a plant or an economy can generate. From that starting point Beaudreau offers what the publisher calls a credible analysis of some of the most pressing questions of the era, among them the productivity slowdown and the information paradox. The book is presented as bridging engineering, applied physics, economics and management science, and is addressed to readers interested in industry, the modern economy, and the physical factors that constrain productivity growth.

Written from the catalogue listing at Blackwell's reproducing the Springer publisher's synopsis.

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