Seven centuries of European economic growth and decline

This paper investigates very long run pre-industrial economic development. New annual GDP per capita data for six European countries over the last seven hundred years paint a clearer picture of the history of European economic development. First, the paper confirms that sustained growth has been a r...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Fouquet, R, Broadberry, S
Format: Journal article
Published: American Economic Association 2015
_version_ 1797096984197201920
author Fouquet, R
Broadberry, S
author_facet Fouquet, R
Broadberry, S
author_sort Fouquet, R
collection OXFORD
description This paper investigates very long run pre-industrial economic development. New annual GDP per capita data for six European countries over the last seven hundred years paint a clearer picture of the history of European economic development. First, the paper confirms that sustained growth has been a recent phenomenon, but rejects the argument that there was no long run growth in living standards before the Industrial Revolution. Instead, the evidence demonstrates the existence of numerous periods of economic growth before the nineteenth century - unsustained, but raising GDP per capita. It also shows that many of these economies experienced substantial economic decline. Thus, rather than being stagnant, pre-nineteenth century European economies experienced a great deal of change. Finally, it offers some evidence that, from the nineteenth century, these economies increased the likelihood of being in a phase of economic growth and reduced the risk of being in a phase of economic decline.
first_indexed 2024-03-07T04:49:17Z
format Journal article
id oxford-uuid:d4673d37-1c33-4fd8-a79c-3eac7c664e6c
institution University of Oxford
last_indexed 2024-03-07T04:49:17Z
publishDate 2015
publisher American Economic Association
record_format dspace
spelling oxford-uuid:d4673d37-1c33-4fd8-a79c-3eac7c664e6c2022-03-27T08:18:12ZSeven centuries of European economic growth and declineJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:d4673d37-1c33-4fd8-a79c-3eac7c664e6cSymplectic Elements at OxfordAmerican Economic Association2015Fouquet, RBroadberry, SThis paper investigates very long run pre-industrial economic development. New annual GDP per capita data for six European countries over the last seven hundred years paint a clearer picture of the history of European economic development. First, the paper confirms that sustained growth has been a recent phenomenon, but rejects the argument that there was no long run growth in living standards before the Industrial Revolution. Instead, the evidence demonstrates the existence of numerous periods of economic growth before the nineteenth century - unsustained, but raising GDP per capita. It also shows that many of these economies experienced substantial economic decline. Thus, rather than being stagnant, pre-nineteenth century European economies experienced a great deal of change. Finally, it offers some evidence that, from the nineteenth century, these economies increased the likelihood of being in a phase of economic growth and reduced the risk of being in a phase of economic decline.
spellingShingle Fouquet, R
Broadberry, S
Seven centuries of European economic growth and decline
title Seven centuries of European economic growth and decline
title_full Seven centuries of European economic growth and decline
title_fullStr Seven centuries of European economic growth and decline
title_full_unstemmed Seven centuries of European economic growth and decline
title_short Seven centuries of European economic growth and decline
title_sort seven centuries of european economic growth and decline
work_keys_str_mv AT fouquetr sevencenturiesofeuropeaneconomicgrowthanddecline
AT broadberrys sevencenturiesofeuropeaneconomicgrowthanddecline