Culture and Social Organizations in the Great Reversal: Europe and China, 1000-2000

Avner Greif, Joel Mokyr and Guido Tabellini

No 12023, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo

Abstract: Why did the industrial revolution occur in Europe and not in China, despite China being well ahead of Europe in terms of economic and technological achievements several centuries earlier? We revisit this long-standing question from a new perspective. We emphasize the importance of the different social organizations that diffused in these two parts of the world in the centuries that preceded the industrial revolution: kin-based organizations in China, vs corporations in Europe. We explain their cultural origins, and discuss how these different organizations shaped the evolution of legal systems, political institutions and human capital accumulation in these two parts of the world. Our main argument is that European corporations played a crucial role in the scientific and technological innovations that ultimately led to the industrial revolution.

Keywords: industrial revolution; China; Europe; culture; institutions; organizations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N00 P00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cul, nep-evo, nep-his and nep-soc
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12023

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