Work

China, Europe, and the Great Divergence: A Study in Historical National Accounting, 980–1850

Year: 2018

Type: article

Abstract: As a result of recent advances in historical national accounting, estimates of GDP per capita are now available for a number of European economies back to the medieval period, including Britain, the Netherlands, Italy, and Spain. The approach has also been extended to Asian economies, including India and Japan. So far, however, China, which has been at the center of the Great Divergence debate, has been absent from this approach. This article adds China to the picture, showing that the Great Divergence began earlier than originally suggested by the California School, but later than implied by older Eurocentric writers.

Source: The Journal of Economic History

DOI: 10.1017/s0022050718000529

Authors: Stephen Broadberry, Hanhui Guan, David Daokui Li

Institutions: University of Oxford, Peking University, Tsinghua University

Language: English

Topic: Historical Economic and Social Studies

Subfield: Economics and Econometrics

Field: Economics, Econometrics and Finance

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funders: European Commission, Tsinghua University, Economic and Social Research Council, National Social Science Fund of China

Awards: Historical Patterns of Development and Underdevelopment: Origins and Persistence of the Great Divergence, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE)