The Hockey Stick

Overview

In lecture eight, we go over Joel Mokyr’s Nobel Prize-winning analysis of the Industrial Revolution and the “hockey stick” pattern of economic growth that transformed human living standards after centuries of stagnation. We analyze how Britain's Industrial Revolution was fueled by the combination of propositional knowledge (why things work) and prescriptive knowledge (how things work), together with the freedoms of trade, labor mobility, and intellectual exchange. Dr. Henderson contrasts Britain’s openness with historical examples of isolation, such as China, and concludes by emphasizing that freedom of inquiry and international openness remain essential for continued innovation and prosperity.