The Change Towards Modern Growth: Proximate Causes

Bas van Leeuwen, Dmitry Didenko, Matteo Calabrese () and Meimei Wang ()
Additional contact information
Matteo Calabrese: Bocconi University
Meimei Wang: Institute of Economics

Chapter Chapter 4 in Innovation and Economic Development in Eurasia, 500 BCE-Present, 2025, pp 61-134 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract In this chapter, we consider which causes of growth (e.g. human capital, taxation, colonies) were the main factors in moving to modern (sustained) economic growth. The proximate factors are of a Smithian (commercialization) and Northian (institutional change) nature. Unsurprisingly, the importance of each factor varies by country. However, trade/empire, urbanization, forced and free labour, and government power were important in both positive and negative ways, depending on the economic and political structure of the country in question. Noticeable are institutions, which played an interaction role, especially when the institutional framework of a country relied on the coexistence of both “Eastern” and “Western” institutions. Further, we discuss the effect of the demographic transition on human capital formation. After some time, human capital growth began to depend on technology (i.e. increasing income) rather than on fertility, thus obscuring the role of the latter in economic growth.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
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: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:frochp:978-3-031-97043-6_4

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9783031970436

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-97043-6_4

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Frontiers in Economic History from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().