The Relatively Recent Arrival of Economic Growth Quiz

PDF page 146: Let’s begin with a brief overview of spectacular economic growth patterns around the world in the last two centuries. We commonly refer to this as the period of modern economic growth. (Later in the chapter we will discuss lower economic growth rates and some key ingredients for economic progress.) Rapid and sustained economic growth is a relatively recent experience for the human race. Before the last two centuries, although rulers, nobles, and conquerors could afford some extravagances and although economies rose above the subsistence level, the average person’s standard of living had not changed much for centuries. Progressive, powerful economic and institutional changes started to have a significant effect in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. According to the Dutch economic historian Jan Luiten van Zanden, slavery-based societies, favorable demographics, global trading routes, and standardized trading institutions that spread with different empires set the stage for the Industrial Revolution to succeed. The Industrial Revolution refers to the widespread use of power-driven machinery and the economic and social changes that resulted in the first half of the 1800s. Ingenious machines—the steam engine, the power loom, and the steam locomotive—performed tasks that otherwise would have taken vast numbers of workers to do. The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain, and soon spread to the United States, Germany, and other countries. The jobs for ordinary people working with these machines were often dirty and dangerous by modern standards, but the alternative jobs of that time in peasant agriculture and small-village industry were often dirty and dangerous, too. The new jobs of the Industrial Revolution typically offered higher pay and a chance for social mobility. A selfreinforcing cycle began: New inventions and investments generated profits, the profits provided funds for more new investment and inventions, and the investments and inventions provided opportunities for further profits. Slowly, a

PDF page 146: Let’s begin with a brief overview of spectacular economic growth patterns around the world in the last two centuries. We commonly refer to this as the period of modern economic growth. (Later in the chapter we will discuss lower economic growth rates and some key ingredients for economic progress.) Rapid and sustained economic growth is a relatively recent experience for the human race. Before the last two centuries, although rulers, nobles, and conquerors could afford some extravagances and although economies rose above the subsistence level, the average person’s standard of living had not changed much for centuries. Progressive, powerful economic and institutional changes started to have a significant effect in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. According to the Dutch economic historian Jan Luiten van Zanden, slavery-based societies, favorable demographics, global trading routes, and standardized trading institutions that spread with different empires set the stage for the Industrial Revolution to succeed. The Industrial Revolution refers to the widespread use of power-driven machinery and the economic and social changes that resulted in the first half of the 1800s. Ingenious machines—the steam engine, the power loom, and the steam locomotive—performed tasks that otherwise would have taken vast numbers of workers to do. The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain, and soon spread to the United States, Germany, and other countries. The jobs for ordinary people working with these machines were often dirty and dangerous by modern standards, but the alternative jobs of that time in peasant agriculture and small-village industry were often dirty and dangerous, too. The new jobs of the Industrial Revolution typically offered higher pay and a chance for social mobility. A selfreinforcing cycle began: New inventions and investments generated profits, the profits provided funds for more new investment and inventions, and the investments and inventions provided opportunities for further profits. Slowly, a

PDF page 146: Let’s begin with a brief overview of spectacular economic growth patterns around the world in the last two centuries. We commonly refer to this as the period of modern economic growth. (Later in the chapter we will discuss lower economic growth rates and some key ingredients for economic progress.) Rapid and sustained economic growth is a relatively recent experience for the human race. Before the last two centuries, although rulers, nobles, and conquerors could afford some extravagances and although economies rose above the subsistence level, the average person’s standard of living had not changed much for centuries. Progressive, powerful economic and institutional changes started to have a significant effect in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. According to the Dutch economic historian Jan Luiten van Zanden, slavery-based societies, favorable demographics, global trading routes, and standardized trading institutions that spread with different empires set the stage for the Industrial Revolution to succeed. The Industrial Revolution refers to the widespread use of power-driven machinery and the economic and social changes that resulted in the first half of the 1800s. Ingenious machines—the steam engine, the power loom, and the steam locomotive—performed tasks that otherwise would have taken vast numbers of workers to do. The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain, and soon spread to the United States, Germany, and other countries. The jobs for ordinary people working with these machines were often dirty and dangerous by modern standards, but the alternative jobs of that time in peasant agriculture and small-village industry were often dirty and dangerous, too. The new jobs of the Industrial Revolution typically offered higher pay and a chance for social mobility. A selfreinforcing cycle began: New inventions and investments generated profits, the profits provided funds for more new investment and inventions, and the investments and inventions provided opportunities for further profits. Slowly, a

PDF page 146: Let’s begin with a brief overview of spectacular economic growth patterns around the world in the last two centuries. We commonly refer to this as the period of modern economic growth. (Later in the chapter we will discuss lower economic growth rates and some key ingredients for economic progress.) Rapid and sustained economic growth is a relatively recent experience for the human race. Before the last two centuries, although rulers, nobles, and conquerors could afford some extravagances and although economies rose above the subsistence level, the average person’s standard of living had not changed much for centuries. Progressive, powerful economic and institutional changes started to have a significant effect in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. According to the Dutch economic historian Jan Luiten van Zanden, slavery-based societies, favorable demographics, global trading routes, and standardized trading institutions that spread with different empires set the stage for the Industrial Revolution to succeed. The Industrial Revolution refers to the widespread use of power-driven machinery and the economic and social changes that resulted in the first half of the 1800s. Ingenious machines—the steam engine, the power loom, and the steam locomotive—performed tasks that otherwise would have taken vast numbers of workers to do. The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain, and soon spread to the United States, Germany, and other countries. The jobs for ordinary people working with these machines were often dirty and dangerous by modern standards, but the alternative jobs of that time in peasant agriculture and small-village industry were often dirty and dangerous, too. The new jobs of the Industrial Revolution typically offered higher pay and a chance for social mobility. A selfreinforcing cycle began: New inventions and investments generated profits, the profits provided funds for more new investment and inventions, and the investments and inventions provided opportunities for further profits. Slowly, a

PDF page 147: group of national economies in Europe and North America emerged from centuries of sluggishness into a period of rapid modern growth. During the last two centuries, the average GDP growth rate per capita in the leading industrialized countries has been about 2% per year. What were times like before then? Read the following Clear It Up feature for the answer.

PDF page 147: Angus Maddison, a quantitative economic historian, led the most systematic inquiry into national incomes before 1870. Economists recently have refined and used his methods to compile GDP per capita estimates from year 1 C.E. to 1348. Table 6.1 is an important counterpoint to most of the narrative in this chapter. It shows that nations can decline as well as rise. A wide array of forces, such as epidemics, natural and weatherrelated disasters, the inability to govern large empires, and the remarkably slow pace of technological and institutional progress explain declines in income. Institutions are the traditions and laws by which people in a community agree to behave and govern themselves. Such institutions include marriage, religion, education, and laws of governance. Institutional progress is the development and codification of these institutions to reinforce social order, and thus, economic growth. One example of such an institution is the Magna Carta (Great Charter), which the English nobles forced King John to sign in 1215. The Magna Carta codified the principles of due process, whereby a free man could not be penalized unless his peers had made a lawful judgment against him. The United States in its own constitution later adopted this concept. This social order may have contributed to England’s GDP per capita in 1348, which was second to that of northern Italy. In studying economic growth, a country’s institutional framework plays a critical role. Table 6.1 also shows relative global equality for almost 1,300 years. After this, we begin to see significant divergence in income (not in the table).

PDF page 147: Angus Maddison, a quantitative economic historian, led the most systematic inquiry into national incomes before 1870. Economists recently have refined and used his methods to compile GDP per capita estimates from year 1 C.E. to 1348. Table 6.1 is an important counterpoint to most of the narrative in this chapter. It shows that nations can decline as well as rise. A wide array of forces, such as epidemics, natural and weatherrelated disasters, the inability to govern large empires, and the remarkably slow pace of technological and institutional progress explain declines in income. Institutions are the traditions and laws by which people in a community agree to behave and govern themselves. Such institutions include marriage, religion, education, and laws of governance. Institutional progress is the development and codification of these institutions to reinforce social order, and thus, economic growth. One example of such an institution is the Magna Carta (Great Charter), which the English nobles forced King John to sign in 1215. The Magna Carta codified the principles of due process, whereby a free man could not be penalized unless his peers had made a lawful judgment against him. The United States in its own constitution later adopted this concept. This social order may have contributed to England’s GDP per capita in 1348, which was second to that of northern Italy. In studying economic growth, a country’s institutional framework plays a critical role. Table 6.1 also shows relative global equality for almost 1,300 years. After this, we begin to see significant divergence in income (not in the table).

PDF page 147: Angus Maddison, a quantitative economic historian, led the most systematic inquiry into national incomes before 1870. Economists recently have refined and used his methods to compile GDP per capita estimates from year 1 C.E. to 1348. Table 6.1 is an important counterpoint to most of the narrative in this chapter. It shows that nations can decline as well as rise. A wide array of forces, such as epidemics, natural and weatherrelated disasters, the inability to govern large empires, and the remarkably slow pace of technological and institutional progress explain declines in income. Institutions are the traditions and laws by which people in a community agree to behave and govern themselves. Such institutions include marriage, religion, education, and laws of governance. Institutional progress is the development and codification of these institutions to reinforce social order, and thus, economic growth. One example of such an institution is the Magna Carta (Great Charter), which the English nobles forced King John to sign in 1215. The Magna Carta codified the principles of due process, whereby a free man could not be penalized unless his peers had made a lawful judgment against him. The United States in its own constitution later adopted this concept. This social order may have contributed to England’s GDP per capita in 1348, which was second to that of northern Italy. In studying economic growth, a country’s institutional framework plays a critical role. Table 6.1 also shows relative global equality for almost 1,300 years. After this, we begin to see significant divergence in income (not in the table).

PDF page 147: Angus Maddison, a quantitative economic historian, led the most systematic inquiry into national incomes before 1870. Economists recently have refined and used his methods to compile GDP per capita estimates from year 1 C.E. to 1348. Table 6.1 is an important counterpoint to most of the narrative in this chapter. It shows that nations can decline as well as rise. A wide array of forces, such as epidemics, natural and weatherrelated disasters, the inability to govern large empires, and the remarkably slow pace of technological and institutional progress explain declines in income. Institutions are the traditions and laws by which people in a community agree to behave and govern themselves. Such institutions include marriage, religion, education, and laws of governance. Institutional progress is the development and codification of these institutions to reinforce social order, and thus, economic growth. One example of such an institution is the Magna Carta (Great Charter), which the English nobles forced King John to sign in 1215. The Magna Carta codified the principles of due process, whereby a free man could not be penalized unless his peers had made a lawful judgment against him. The United States in its own constitution later adopted this concept. This social order may have contributed to England’s GDP per capita in 1348, which was second to that of northern Italy. In studying economic growth, a country’s institutional framework plays a critical role. Table 6.1 also shows relative global equality for almost 1,300 years. After this, we begin to see significant divergence in income (not in the table).

PDF page 147: Angus Maddison, a quantitative economic historian, led the most systematic inquiry into national incomes before 1870. Economists recently have refined and used his methods to compile GDP per capita estimates from year 1 C.E. to 1348. Table 6.1 is an important counterpoint to most of the narrative in this chapter. It shows that nations can decline as well as rise. A wide array of forces, such as epidemics, natural and weatherrelated disasters, the inability to govern large empires, and the remarkably slow pace of technological and institutional progress explain declines in income. Institutions are the traditions and laws by which people in a community agree to behave and govern themselves. Such institutions include marriage, religion, education, and laws of governance. Institutional progress is the development and codification of these institutions to reinforce social order, and thus, economic growth. One example of such an institution is the Magna Carta (Great Charter), which the English nobles forced King John to sign in 1215. The Magna Carta codified the principles of due process, whereby a free man could not be penalized unless his peers had made a lawful judgment against him. The United States in its own constitution later adopted this concept. This social order may have contributed to England’s GDP per capita in 1348, which was second to that of northern Italy. In studying economic growth, a country’s institutional framework plays a critical role. Table 6.1 also shows relative global equality for almost 1,300 years. After this, we begin to see significant divergence in income (not in the table).

PDF page 147: Another fascinating and underreported fact is the high levels of income, compared to others at that time, attained by the Islamic Empire Abbasid Caliphate—which was founded in present-day Iraq in 730 C.E. At its height, the empire spanned large regions of the Middle East, North Africa, and Spain until its gradual decline over 200 years.

PDF page 148: The Industrial Revolution led to increasing inequality among nations. Some economies took off, whereas others, like many of those in Africa or Asia, remained close to a subsistence standard of living. General calculations show that the 17 countries of the world with the most-developed economies had, on average, 2.4 times the GDP per capita of the world’s poorest economies in 1870. By 1960, the most developed economies had 4.2 times the GDP per capita of the poorest economies. However, by the middle of the twentieth century, some countries had shown that catching up was possible. Japan’s economic growth took off in the 1960s and 1970s, with a growth rate of real GDP per capita averaging 11% per year during those decades. Certain countries in Latin America experienced a boom in economic growth in the 1960s as well. In Brazil, for example, GDP per capita expanded by an average annual rate of 11.1% from 1968 to 1973. In the 1970s, some East Asian economies, including South Korea, Thailand, and Taiwan, saw rapid growth. In these countries, growth rates of 11% to 12% per year in GDP per capita were not uncommon. More recently, China, with its population of nearly 1.4 billion people, grew at a per capita rate 9% per year from 1984 into the 2000s. India, with a population of 1.3 billion, has shown promising signs of economic growth, with growth in GDP per capita of about 4% per year during the 1990s and climbing toward 7% to 8% per year in the 2000s.