Paper #1383

Title:

Gifts of Mars: Warfare and Europe's early rise to riches

Authors:

Nico Voigtländer and Joachim Voth

Date:

September 2013

Abstract:

Today, per capita income differences around the globe are large – varying by as much as a factor of 35 across countries (Hall and Jones 1999). These differentials mostly reflect the "Great Divergence" (Sam Huntingon) – the fact that Western Europe and former European colonies grew rapidly after 1800, while other countries grew much later or stagnated. What is less well-known is that a "First Divergence" preceded the Great Divergence: Western Europe surged ahead of the rest of the world long before technological growth became rapid. Europe in 1500 was already twice as rich on a per capita basis as Africa, and one-third richer than most of Asia (Maddison 2007). In this essay, we explain how Europe's tumultuous politics and deadly penchant for warfare translated into a sustained advantage in per capita incomes.

Area of Research:

Economic and Business History / Macroeconomics and International Economics

Published in:

Journal of Economic Perspectives, 27 (4), 165-186, 2013

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