Made in America? The New World, the Old, and the Industrial Revolution

Gregory Clark, Kevin H. O'Rourke and Alan M. Taylor
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Alan M. Taylor (), Kevin H. O'Rourke () and Gregory Clark ()

The Institute for International Integration Studies Discussion Paper Series from IIIS

Abstract: For two decades, the consensus explanation of the British Industrial Revolution has placed technological change and the supply side at center stage, affording little or no role for demand or overseas trade. Recently, alternative explanations have placed an emphasis on the importance of trade with New World colonies, and the expanded supply of raw cotton it provided. We test both hypotheses using calibrated general equilibrium models of the British economy and the rest of the world for 1760 and 1850. Neither claim is supported. Trade was vital for the progress of the industrial revolution; but it was trade with the rest of the world, not the American colonies, that allowed Britain to export its rapidly expanding textile output and achieve growth through extreme specialization in response to shifting comparative advantage.

New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-int
Date: 2008-05-30
Note: Length:
View citations in EconPapers

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.tcd.ie/iiis/documents/discussion/pdfs/iiisdp251.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Made in America? The New World, the Old, and the Industrial Revolution (2008)
Working Paper: Made in America? The New World, the Old, and the Industrial Revolution (2008)
Journal Article: Made in America? The New World, the Old, and the Industrial Revolution (2008)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iis:dispap:iiisdp251

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in The Institute for International Integration Studies Discussion Paper Series from IIIS
Address: 01
Contact information at EDIRC.
Series data maintained by Eva Mateo ().