How the World Became Rich by Mark Koyama and Jared Rubin and Slouching Towards Utopia by J. Bradford DeLong: A Review Essay

Steven N. Durlauf

Journal of Economic Literature, 2025, vol. 63, issue 1, 288-305

Abstract: This essay reviews two recent books on economic growth: Mark Koyama and Jared Rubin's How the World Became Rich and J. Bradford DeLong's Slouching Towards Utopia. Both books offer rich and nuanced treatments of the long-run and proximate mechanisms underlying the global growth in the past centuries. I evaluate their arguments and conclude with some reflections on conceptual shortcomings in the growth literature and some suggestions for the future.

JEL-codes: F54 J11 N10 N30 N40 N60 O40 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1257/jel.20231724

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