Paul Kedrosky offers a nice wordle image (below) that highlights the top 150 words used in the papers presented at the World Economic History Conference. Entrepreneurship seems to be barely present? Can you find it? They must have really made some nice insights at that conference. Ha!
Well the conference had its problems but I’m afraid you’re being unfair. Entrepreneurship was very mentioned as a key element of understanding for instance the rise of the Industrial Revolution in England.
Besides, entrepreneurship is a very soft concept. Not only is it tricky to define abstractly but it is nearly impossible to grasp in effect for most of the periods under consideration. How do you want to get into such details while we still do not have a precise picture of interest rates or the costs of production factors? What are you going to do, ask a guy from the 17th century why he accepted to forgo present utility in favour of potential future income?
Besides, it’s a concept that is often hijacked by sociologising wankers (in our field at least) and that doesn’t make for very insightful sessions.
My two cents…
Appreciate your comments. You are correct that it is tricky to define, but we know it is there. We know that there are people and small groups of people (more and more in recent history) who can visualize a different future (at least for the past couple hundred years). We know that for many, success never comes, but for a few change the course of history and the economy. I find it hard to believe that interest rates could have kept down Gates, Ford, Branson, etc. (I take entrepreneurship to be the human phenom we see in modern capitalist economies and some hybrid economies). Thanks again.