From divergence to convergence: re-evaluating the history behind China’s economic boom

Loren Brandt (), Debin Ma and Thomas Rawski

Economic History Working Papers from London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History

Abstract: China’s long-term economic dynamics pose a formidable challenge to economic historians. The Qing Empire (1644-1911), the world’s largest national economy before 1800, experienced a tripling of population during the 17th and 18th centuries with no signs of diminishing per capita income. While the timing remains in dispute, a vast gap emerged between newly rich industrial nations and China’s lagging economy in the wake of the Industrial Revolution. Only with an unprecedented growth spurt beginning in the late 1970s did this great divergence separating China from the global leaders substantially diminish, allowing China to regain its former standing among the world’s largest economies. This essay develops an integrated framework for understanding that entire history, including both the divergence and the recent convergent trend. We explain how deeply embedded political and economic institutions that contributed to a long process of extensive growth before 1800 subsequently prevented China from capturing the benefits associated with the Industrial Revolution. During the 20th century, the gradual erosion of these historic constraints and of new obstacles erected by socialist planning eventually opened the door to China’s current boom. Our analysis links China’s recent development to important elements of its past, while using recent success to provide fresh perspectives on the critical obstacles undermining earlier modernization efforts, and their eventual removal.

JEL-codes: N15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 111 pages
Date: 2013-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his and nep-tra
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/50816/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: From Divergence to Convergence: Reevaluating the History behind China's Economic Boom (2014)
Working Paper: From Divergence to Convergence: Re-evaluating the History Behind China’s Economic Boom (2013)
Working Paper: From divergence to convergence: re-evaluating the history behind China’s economic boom (2012)
Working Paper: From Divergence to Convergence: Re-evaluating the History Behind China's Economic Boom (2012)
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