Unified China; Divided Europe

Chiu Yu Ko, Mark Koyama and Tuan-Hwee Sng

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: This paper studies the causes and consequences of political centralization and fragmentation in China and Europe. We argue that the severe and unidirectional threat of external invasion fostered political centralization in China while Europe faced a wider variety of smaller external threats and remained politically fragmented. We test our hypothesis using data on the frequency of nomadic attacks and the number of regimes in China. Our model allows us to explore the economic consequences of political centralization and fragmentation. Political centralization in China led to lower taxation and hence faster population growth during peacetime than in Europe. But it also meant that China was relatively fragile in the event of an external invasion. Our results are consistent with historical evidence of warfare, capital city location, tax levels, and population growth in both China and Europe.

Keywords: China; Europe; Great Divergence; Political Fragmentation; Political Centralization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H0 H1 H56 N0 N13 N15 N40 N43 N45 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014-12-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cna, nep-his and nep-tra
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

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https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/78735/1/MPRA_paper_78735.pdf revised version (application/pdf)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pra:mprapa:60418

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