The state and scope of the economic history of developing regions

Stefan Schirmer, Latika Chaudhary, Metin Cosgel (), Jean-Luc Demonsant (), Johan Fourie, Ewout Frankema, Giampaolo Garzarelli, John Luiz, Martine Mariotti, Grietjie Verhoef () and Se Yan
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Stefan Schirmer: University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa

No 10/2010, Working Papers from Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics

Abstract: This paper examines the state and scope of the study of economic history of developing regions, underlining the importance of knowledge of history for economic development. While the quality of the existing research on developing countries is impressive, the proportion of published research focusing on these regions is low. The dominance of economic history research on the North American and Western European success stories suggests we need a forum for future research that contributes to our understanding of how institutions, path dependency, technological change and evolutionary processes shape economic growth in the developing parts of the world. Many valuable data sets and historical episodes relating to developing regions remain unexplored, and many interesting questions unanswered. This is exciting. Economic historians and other academics interested in the economic past have an opportunity to work to begin to unlock the complex reasons for differences in development, the factors behind economic disasters and the dynamics driving emerging success stories.

Keywords: Africa; China; Cliometrics; developing countries; development; India; institutions; Latin America; Middle East; new economic history (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N01 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev, nep-evo and nep-his
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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https://www.ekon.sun.ac.za/wpapers/2010/wp102010/wp-10-2010.pdf First version, 2010 (application/pdf)

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Working Paper: The state and scope of the economic history of developing regions (2010)
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