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Technological Innovations and Endogenous Changes in U.S. Legal Institutions, 1790-1920

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  • B. Zorina Khan
Abstract
Recent scholarship highlights the importance of institutions to the processes of economic growth, but the precise nature of their relationship bears further examination. This paper considers how the evolution of legal institutions has contributed to, and in turn been affected by, major technological innovations. The first section of the paper examines the U.S. intellectual property system. Patent and copyright laws, and their interpretation and enforcement by the federal judiciary, certainly influenced the course of technical and cultural change, but it is clear that they did not develop independently of the state of technology and of the economy. Both the statutes and their interpretations altered in response to the introduction and diffusion of new technologies. The second section explores in more detail the impact of some of these technological innovations -- including steamboats, railroads, telegraphy, medical technologies, and automobiles -- on the common law, regulation and insurance. Such technological advances often led to institutional bottlenecks, which then required accommodations in legal rules and their enforcement. Although the common law had some capability for economizing on legal adjustment costs through 'adjudication by analogy', the socio-economic changes wrought by major innovations ultimately produced more fundamental change in legal institutions, such as shifts in the relative importance of state and federal policies, and in the degree of reliance on regulation by bureaucracy. In sum, the historical record of the evolution of legal rules and standards in the United States indicates a remarkable degree of flexibility as such institutions responded to changing economic circumstances.

Suggested Citation

  • B. Zorina Khan, 2004. "Technological Innovations and Endogenous Changes in U.S. Legal Institutions, 1790-1920," NBER Working Papers 10346, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:10346
    Note: DAE LE
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Luca Anderlini & Leonardo Felli & Giovanni Immordino & Alessandro Riboni, 2013. "Legal Institutions, Innovation, And Growth," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 54(3), pages 937-956, August.
    2. von Wangenheim Georg, 2011. "Evolutionary Theories in Law and Economics and Their Use for Comparative Legal Theory," Review of Law & Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 7(3), pages 737-765, December.
    3. repec:dau:papers:123456789/7722 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Catherine Yap Co, 2007. "US Exports of Knowledge‐intensive Services and Importing‐country Characteristics," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(5), pages 890-904, November.
    5. Fernando Rio & Antonio Sampayo, 2014. "Obsolescence and productivity," Portuguese Economic Journal, Springer;Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestao, vol. 13(3), pages 195-216, December.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • N4 - Economic History - - Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation
    • O3 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights

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