Economic Growth and Development

Biased technological change: the green revolution and
industrialization

Technological change can be biased such that it favours one sector of the
economy more than others. Figure 5.3 shows technological change biased
towards the agricultural sector. A good example of this was the ‘green revolu-
tion’ of the mid-1960s when the application of science to agriculture boosted

100 Sources of Growth in the Modern World Economy since 1950

Figure 5.2 Technological change

Industrial

output

Agricultural output

Technological

change

New production

possibilit y frontier

Old production

possibility frontier

Industrial

output

Agricultural output

Technological change

in agriculture

Figure 5.3 Technological change: the green revolution