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An Economist’s Guide to Economic History pp 193–200Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Global Divergence and Economic Change

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Abstract

An explosion in wealth occurred in Western countries in the second half of the second millennium. Meanwhile, the economies of the rest of the world remained relatively stagnant. Understanding the causes of this divergence is one of the great tasks of economic history. This chapter discusses how warfare, institutions, and culture play pivotal roles in recent theories of global divergence.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For theories focusing on the divergence between China and Europe, see Pomeranz (2000) and Rosenthal and Wong (2011). Indeed, the term Great Divergence comes from the title of Pomeranz’s book. On the Middle East and Europe, see Kuran (2011) and Rubin (2017). To my knowledge, there is no comparative account employing economic theory on the long-run economic divergence between Western Europe and Byzantium.

  2. 2.

    Recent works in the fiscal capacity literature are summarised nicely by Johnson and Koyama (2017) and Dincecco (2014).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chapman University, Orange, CA, USA

    Jared Rubin

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  1. Jared Rubin
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  1. Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, UK

    Matthias Blum

  2. Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, UK

    Christopher L. Colvin

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Rubin, J. (2018). Global Divergence and Economic Change. In: Blum, M., Colvin, C. (eds) An Economist’s Guide to Economic History. Palgrave Studies in Economic History. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96568-0_23

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96568-0_23

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