Course Video 8: Joseph Schumpeter, Economic Growth, and Creative Destruction

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/75421736]

Another video from my history of economic thought course — this time it’s Joseph Schumpeter, famous for his work on economic growth and innovation. Schumpeter was an inconoclastic economist who was influential well beyond his reputation. From his education and original academic and civil service work in Austria, Schumpeter went on to a long, productive career exploring the causes of economic growth and its fluctuation over time. Schumpeter’s interest in the dynamics of economic growth processes led him to develop a theory of entrepreneurship, and to argue that innovation is at the core of economic growth. Innovation creates value, but through changes such as product differentiation, previous goods, services, and processes become obsolete and lose their value. Such is the unavoidable “perennial gale of creative destruction”.

I have one more video to post, and the entire series is available on my history of economic thought course video channel.