Long Waves: Conceptual, Empirical and Modelling Issues

The theory of long waves is exceptionally fortunate in that, while there is no general consensus that they exist or, assuming that they do, what an appropriate theory should be, due to the unstinting efforts of several researchers, we have encyclopaedic compendia of the literature (Freeman 1996, Reijnders and Lou____ 1999) and a recent valiant attempt to write modern economic history from a long-wave perspective (Freeman and Lou____ 2001). The purpose of this entry is to succinctly review the controversy about what long waves might mean as a phenomenon, how they might be measured and modelled, and where they might fit into an overarching theory of economic dynamics and evolution.