How the World Became Rich: The Historical Origins of Economic Growth
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- Create Date：2022-06-15 06:51:55
- Update Date：2025-09-06
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- Author：Mark Koyama
- ISBN：1509540237
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Summary
Most humans are significantly richer than their ancestors。 Humanity gained nearly all of its wealth in the last two centuries。 How did this come to pass？ How did the world become rich？
Mark Koyama and Jared Rubin dive into the many theories of why modern economic growth happened when and where it did。 They discuss recently-advanced theories rooted in geography， politics， culture， demography， and colonialism。 Pieces of each of these theories help explain key events on the path to modern riches。 Why did the Industrial Revolution begin in 18th-century Britain？ Why did some European countries， the USA， Canada， and Japan catch up in the 19th century？ Why did it take until the late 20th and 21st centuries for other countries？ Why have some still not caught up？
Koyama and Rubin show that the past can provide a guide for how countries can escape poverty。 There are certain prerequisites that all successful economies seem to have。 But there is also no panacea。 A society's past and its institutions and culture play a key role in shaping how it may--or may not--develop。
Mark Koyama and Jared Rubin dive into the many theories of why modern economic growth happened when and where it did。 They discuss recently-advanced theories rooted in geography， politics， culture， demography， and colonialism。 Pieces of each of these theories help explain key events on the path to modern riches。 Why did the Industrial Revolution begin in 18th-century Britain？ Why did some European countries， the USA， Canada， and Japan catch up in the 19th century？ Why did it take until the late 20th and 21st centuries for other countries？ Why have some still not caught up？
Koyama and Rubin show that the past can provide a guide for how countries can escape poverty。 There are certain prerequisites that all successful economies seem to have。 But there is also no panacea。 A society's past and its institutions and culture play a key role in shaping how it may--or may not--develop。
Reviews
David Childers
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A concise and readable introduction to the recent Economic History literature on the transition to modern economic growth。 On the positive side， this covers a huge amount of ground in terms of theories and debates about the origins of the modern economy， giving space to the major ideas expressed over the past 20 to 30 years in mainstream Economic History。 The coverage is first thematic， with chapters on theories of particular aspects such as geography， institutions， culture， demographics， and co A concise and readable introduction to the recent Economic History literature on the transition to modern economic growth。 On the positive side， this covers a huge amount of ground in terms of theories and debates about the origins of the modern economy， giving space to the major ideas expressed over the past 20 to 30 years in mainstream Economic History。 The coverage is first thematic， with chapters on theories of particular aspects such as geography， institutions， culture， demographics， and colonialism， and then regional and chronological， covering how these themes manifested in the concrete history of Europe and eventually other areas as they began the process of development。 The downside here is that to fit such a broad scope into such a short text， the coverage of any particular issue or area is （perhaps somewhat necessarily）， shallow， with a brief summary of the idea and the results of many papers without detailed interrogation of the justification for a particular conclusion or strong attempts to place it in the context of a broader framework， so that much of it reads as a big "he said she said" without providing the necessary info to resolve or evaluate the claims。 This becomes especially jarring when the authors bring their own assessments about contentious areas of debate in just a few lines。 Maybe they're right about many or all of these topics， but the evidence presented is much too narrow to evaluate。 A highlight， which made starker what I felt was missing in the rest of the book， was the chapter on demography， which made an effort to present the facts in the context of a simple neo-Malthusian model which allowed putting different forces on a common scale and measuring their relative importance。 Admittedly， this is much harder to do with something like "culture"， but I would have liked a little bit more in the way of （the now deeply unfashionable） growth theory， not because it resolves any debates， but because an emphasis on the mechanical aspects of the growth process would help sort the many different theories in terms of the forces on which they act， and evaluate which are complementary or competitive。 In the absence of this kind of grounding， even well-identified micro studies tell us very little about what matters for the titular question: do the results add up， or are they canceled out by other forces， or are they magnified in some way？ A problem with many classes of explanation offered here is that while a contribution to the level of economic output can often easily be discerned， the role in a sustained transition from stagnation to continued growth is much less obvious。 So， for example， an institution which incentivizes or suppresses economic activity might look to a microeconomist a lot like a tax or subsidy; but we know that actual tax rates were not strongly predictive of takeoff， or were predictive in the "wrong" direction （this is the puzzle that the state capacity literature has attempted to address）。 In that case， even if we did have a cleanly identified well-powered study of a particular institution （and in this book there is little explanation of when a study is based on such variation， and given the many extremely noisy bivariate scatter plots with no error bars， one can conclude that even when it is， one should expect a great deal of statistical uncertainty）， it might tell us very little about the growth process。None of this is to detract from the value of the book， which packs a lot into a very small and easy to digest package。 As a broad overview of a literature which is not widely known to nonspecialists， it helps to place the individual works within the contours of major research areas and debates。 Its best use， I think， would be as a companion to a semester long class in which students could dive into the articles and theories more briefly described， evaluating and debating methods and comparing with models。 Had I had this book as a companion to the class in European Economic History that I took in grad school which covered much of the same material （not so surprisingly， as the professor came from the same program as Jared Rubin）， it would have helped immensely with the synthesis， and so I think this book deserves a place on the syllabus of any such course。 。。。more
Dylan Matthews
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Outstanding summary of decades of research into the origins of economic growth， why the Industrial Revolution started when and where it did， the influence of colonization and the slave trade， how institutional factors and geography affect growth prospects， etc。It was somewhat strange to me that until this， no literature review existed of the various theories explaining how the world got rich。 You could read particular people's theories and they often became best-sellers （Why Nations Fail， Guns， Outstanding summary of decades of research into the origins of economic growth， why the Industrial Revolution started when and where it did， the influence of colonization and the slave trade， how institutional factors and geography affect growth prospects， etc。It was somewhat strange to me that until this， no literature review existed of the various theories explaining how the world got rich。 You could read particular people's theories and they often became best-sellers （Why Nations Fail， Guns， Germs， and Steel， Plagues and Peoples） but as a layperson， how are you to know who's right？ Probably the best you can do is review the theories， and this is the first broadly accessible introduction to them I've seen。 。。。more
tony
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