10 
happen in the industries most affected, seeing how 
powerful the factors are which work against it (protection 
not only of existing capital, but of jobs). 
It may that it would be vain to wait for an automatic 
readjustment and that the danger of secular depression 
has to be countered by active policy, and that on a more 
than national level. 
IV. My discussion of the relation of growth and distribution 
in Maturity & Stagnation was couched in terms of a process 
of innovation and diffusion. Thus it appeals to the fact 
of alternating stimulation and depression 
connected with the technological development, 
a fact appealed to also by C. Freeman, although I deal 
only with the influence on prices and profit margins 
and not on effective demand. 
I start with the accident of a firm acquiring a quasi 
monopolist ic position through an innovation, giving extra 
profit or differential rents. Owing to this the average 
mark-up in the industry will rise. Subsequently this firm 
will expand its capacity, and in a later stage, other 
firms may acquire the skill. Firms which do not have it 
will be driven out and their output capacity will dis 
appear. In this process the mark-up will be reduced again