INNOVATION AND LONG CYCLES OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT Professor Christopher Freeman Paper presented at the INTERNACIONAL SEMINAR ON INNOVATION AND DEVELOPMENT AT THE INDUSTRIAL SECTOR

This background paper is largely based on a lecture given at Imperial College in February 1982. I would like to acknowledge the help of many colleagues in SPRU in developing the ideas, and particularly John Clark and Luc Soete, who have collaborated with me in writing a book on Unemployment and Technical Innovation: a Study of Long Waves in Economic Development, published by Frances Pinter (Publishers) Ltd. This book develops more fully may of the ideas summarised here. I would also like to acknowledge with gratitude the support of a grant from the Social Science Research Council for a programme of research on Technical Change and Employment Opportunities (TEMPO) of which this work is one part. The paper at the Campinas International Seminar will discuss its implications for technological progress in the next decades.