Stephen Broadberry
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 3714549 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | Stephen Broadberry |
| NOMBRES | Stephen |
| APELLIDO | Broadberry |
| FIRMA | BROADBERRY S |
| AFILIACIONES | University of Warwick |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2846-8193 |
| VERIFICADO | Sí |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 69 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 454 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 67 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 2 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 1984 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 12 |
Innovation and the great divergence
Recent historical national accounting data show that the timing of the Great Divergence hinges on the different trends in north‐west Europe and the Yangzi Delta region of China. Although north‐west Europe only pulled ahead of the Yangzi Delta after 1700, both the positive trend of GDP per capita in north‐west Europe after 1700 and the negative trend in the Yangzi Delta were continuations of a process that began in the fourteenth century, driven b…
British business cycles, 1270–1870
Annual estimates of GDP constructed from the output side are used to analyse British business cycles between 1270 and 1870. After c.1670, the scale of recessions tended to diminish as the economy grew, diversified and became more resilient. Until c.1730, business cycles were driven largely by agricultural fluctuations, but shocks to industry and commerce became more important over time as the structure of the economy changed. A number of severe r…
Regional variation of GDP per head within China, 1080–1850
We examine regional variation in Chinese GDP per head for five benchmark years from the Song dynasty to the Qing. For the Ming and Qing dynasties, we provide a breakdown of regional GDP per head across seven macro regions, establishing that East Central China was the richest macro region. In addition, we provide data on the Yangzi Delta, the core of East Central China, widely seen as the richest part of China since 1400. Yangzi Delta GDP per head…
Growing, Shrinking, and Long-Run Economic Performance
Although long-run economic performance has improved primarily through a decline in the rate and frequency of shrinking rather than through an increase in the rate of growing, most analysis of economic development has focused on increasing the rate of growing. We examine the forces making for a reduction in the rate of shrinking. The main proximate factors considered are (1) structural change, (2) technological change, (3) demographic change, and …
European business cycles and economic growth, 1300–2000
The modern business cycle features long expansions combined with short recessions, and is thus related to the emergence of sustained economic growth. It also features significant international co-movement, and is therefore associated with growing market integration and globalisation. When did these patterns first appear? This paper explores the changing nature of the business cycle using historical national accounts for nine European economies be…
Catching-Up and Falling Behind
We provide decadal estimates of GDP per capita for the Russian Empire from the 1690s to the 1880s, making it possible for the first time to compare the economic performance of one of the world's largest economies with other countries. Significant Russian economic growth before the 1760s resulted in catching-up on northwest Europe, but this was followed by a period of negative growth between the 1760s and 1800s and stagnation from the 1800s to the…
Dating business cycles in the United Kingdom, 1700-2010
This paper constructs a new chronology of the business cycle in the United Kingdom from 1700 on an annual basis and from 1920 on a quarterly basis to 2010. The new chronology points to several observations about the business cycle. First, the cycle has significantly increased in duration and amplitude over time. Second, contractions have become less frequent but are as persistent and costly as at other times in history. Third, the typical recessi…
Economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa, 1885–2008
Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has been absent from recent debates about comparative long-run growth owing to the lack of data on aggregate economic performance before 1950. This paper provides estimates of GDP per capita on an annual basis for eight Anglophone African economies for the period since 1885, raising new questions about previous characterizations of the region's economic performance. The new data show that many of these economies had level…
The Cambridge Economic History of the Modern World
The first volume of The Cambridge Economic History of the Modern World traces the emergence of modern economic growth in eighteenth century Britain and its spread across the globe. Focusing on the period from 1700 to 1870, a team of leading experts in economic history offer a series of regional studies from around the world, as well as thematic analyses of key factors governing the differential outcomes in different parts of the global economy. T…
Cambridge Economic History of the Modern World
Historical national accounting and dating the Great Divergence
By offering a particular interpretation of the new evidence on historical national accounting, Goldstone argues for a return to the Pomeranz (2000) version of the Great Divergence, beginning only after 1800. However, he fails to distinguish between two very different patterns of pre-industrial growth: (1) alternating episodes of growing and shrinking without any long-term trend in per capita income and (2) episodes of growing interspersed by per …
China, Europe, and the Great Divergence
Peter Solar highlights some shortcomings of our treatment of government spending. However, correcting for these shortcomings using data rather than assumptions confirms our principal findings. GDP per capita in the leading region of China remained around the same level as in the leading region of Europe until the eighteenth century before declining substantially during the Qing dynasty. The Great Divergence thus began around 1700, earlier than or…
Japan and the great divergence, 730–1874
China, Europe, and the Great Divergence
As a result of recent advances in historical national accounting, estimates of GDP per capita are now available for a number of European economies back to the medieval period, including Britain, the Netherlands, Italy, and Spain. The approach has also been extended to Asian economies, including India and Japan. So far, however, China, which has been at the center of the Great Divergence debate, has been absent from this approach. This article add…
Clark's Malthus delusion
Clark's claims about the scale of English agricultural output from the 1200s to the 1860s flout historical and geographical reality. His income‐based estimates start with the daily real wages of adult males and assume that days worked per year were constant. Those advanced in British economic growth make no such assumption and instead are built up from the output side. They correlate better with population trends and are consistent with an econom…
Economic Development in Africa and Europe
Recent advances in historical national accounting have allowed for global comparisons of GDP per capita across space and time. Critics have argued that GDP per capita fails to capture adequately the multi-dimensional nature of welfare, and have developed alternative measures such as the human development index. Whilst recognising that these wider indicators provide an appropriate way of assessing levels of welfare, we argue that GDP per capita re…
Seven Centuries of European Economic Growth and Decline
This paper investigates very long-run preindustrial economic development. New annual GDP per capita data for six European countries over the last seven hundred years paint a clearer picture of the history of European economic development. We confirm that sustained growth has been a recent phenomenon, but reject the argument that there was no long-run growth in living standards before the Industrial Revolution. Instead, the evidence demonstrates t…
Anonymity, Efficiency Wages and Technological Progress
India and the great divergence
Introduction
When did Britain industrialise? The sectoral distribution of the labour force and labour productivity in Britain, 1381–1851
Cambridge Economic History of Modern Europe, 1700-1870
The future of economic, business, and social history
Aggregate and per capita GDP in Europe, 1870–2000
This article presents estimates of aggregate and per capita GDP in constant prices for Europe over the period 1870-2000. Following the approach of Bairoch, we present figures for the continent as a whole and for individual countries on the basis of changing boundaries. This is complementary to the Maddison data-set, where country data are presented on the basis of constant boundaries. Data on the basis of the boundaries of the time are more conve…
Recent Developments in the Theory of Very Long Run Growth
This paper offers a historical appraisal of recent developments in the theory of very long run growth, focusing on two main areas: (1) linkages between wages, population and human capital and (2) interactions between institutions, markets and technology. Historians as well as economists have recently begun to break away from the traditional practice of using different methods to analyse the world before and after the industrial revolution. Howeve…
The early modern great divergence
Contrary to the claims of Pomeranz, Parthasarathi, and other ‘world historians’, the prosperous parts of Asia between 1500 and 1800 look similar to the stagnating southern, central, and eastern parts of Europe rather than the developing north‐western parts. In the advanced parts of India and China, grain wages were comparable to those in north‐western Europe, but silver wages, which conferred purchasing power over tradable goods and services, wer…
How Did the United States and Germany Overtake Britian? A Sectoral Analysis of Comparative Productivity Levels, 1870–1990
A sectoral analysis of comparative labor productivity levels over the period 1870 to 1990 suggests mechanisms of catching-up and forging ahead that are rather different from those found in the conventional literature. Both Germany and the United States caught up with and overtook Britain in terms of aggregate labor productivity largely by shifting resources out of agriculture and improving their relative productivity position in services rather t…
India and the great divergence
China, Europe, and the Great Divergence
As a result of recent advances in historical national accounting, estimates of GDP per capita are now available for a number of European economies back to the medieval period, including Britain, the Netherlands, Italy, and Spain. The approach has also been extended to Asian economies, including India and Japan. So far, however, China, which has been at the center of the Great Divergence debate, has been absent from this approach. This article add…
When did Britain industrialise? The sectoral distribution of the labour force and labour productivity in Britain, 1381–1851
Britain's Productivity Gap in the 1930s
This article proposes a reinterpretation of the failure of interwar British productivity levels to match those of the United States. We argue that key elements in poor British productivity performance included inadequate human capital, a bargaining environment that allowed workers to maintain restrictive practices, and collusive agreements that limited the exit of inefficient firms. We suggest that weaknesses in the structure of British firms poi…
Lancashire, India, and shifting competitive advantage in cotton textiles, 1700-1850
In the early eighteenth century, wages in Britain were more than four times as high as in India, the world's major exporter of cotton textiles. This induced the adoption of more capital-intensive production methods in Britain and a faster rate of technological progress, so that competitive advantage had begun to shift in Britain's favour by the late eighteenth century. However, the completion of the process was delayed until after the Napoleonic …
External economies of scale in the Lancashire cotton industry, 1900-1950
This article provides three types of evidence for external economies of scale in the Lancashire cotton industry. Anglo-American productivity differences are used to demon-strate external economies at the industry level. Econometric evidence of dynamic (Marshall-Arrow-Romer) external economies of localization in spinning and weaving is provided using individual earnings data. A case study of a merchant firm demonstrates the build-up of dynamic (Ja…
Competition and Innovation in 1950s Britain
We find little support for the Schumpeterian hypothesis of a positive relationship between market power and innovation in 1950's Britain even though many economists and policymakers accepted it at the time. Pricefixing agreements were very widespread prior to the 1956 Restrictive Practices Act and they seem to have had adverse effects on costs and productivity. Competition policy appears to have been much too lenient but the productivity problems…
Introduction
The historical roots of India’s service-led development
Labor productivity in the United States and the United Kingdom during the nineteenth century
Comparative Productivity in British and American Manufacturing during the Nineteenth Century
Japan and the great divergence, 730–1874
Comparative Productivity in British and German Manufacturing Before World War II
This article provides a new benchmark estimate of comparative Germany/U.K. labor productivity in manufacturing for circa 1907, and experiments with alternative German manufacturing production indices for time series projection from a circa 1935 benchmark. A consistent picture of broadly similar levels of manufacturing labor productivity in Britain and Germany throughout the period 1871-1938 is established. We also show that a substantial German p…
British Economic Policy and Industrial Performance in the Early Post-War Period
This paper explores the implications of the post-war settlement for British industrial productivity performance during the period 1945–60. We argue that the exigencies of the situation at the end of the war precluded supply-side reforms which might have promoted faster growth. At the same time, however, the informal 'social contract' which emerged was conducive to low unemployment without inflation. Building upon our earlier findings for the 1930…
Manufacturing and the Convergence Hypothesis
The commonly accepted chronology for comparative productivity levels, based on GDP data, does not apply to the manufacturing sector, which shows evidence of a much greater degree of stationarity of comparative labor productivity performance among the major industrialized countries of Britain, Germany, and the United States. These results for manufacturing suggest that convergence of GDP per worker must have occurred through trends in other sector…
The emergence of mass unemployment
S. N. Broadberry, The Emergence of Mass Unemployment: Explaining Macroeconomic Trends in Britain during the Trans-World War I Period, The Economic History Review, Vol. 43, No. 2 (May, 1990), pp. 271-282
Technological Leadership and Productivity Leadership in Manufacturing Since the Industrial Revolution
The United States has been the labour productivity leader in manufacturing since the early nineteenth century despite changes in technological leadership from Britain to the United States and then to Germany and Japan. US productivity leadership is based on the more widespread use of mass production rather than craft production methods, determined by resource and factor endowments and demand patterns. The two systems can coexist so long as the te…
Aggregate Supply in Interwar Britain
Journal Article Aggregate Supply in Interwar Britain Get access S. N. Broadberry S. N. Broadberry University College, Cardiff Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Economic Journal, Volume 96, Issue 382, 1 June 1986, Pages 467–481, https://doi.org/10.2307/2233127 Published: 01 June 1986
Relative Per Capita Income Levels in the United Kingdom and the United States since 1870
There are currently two ways of estimating relative levels of per capita income back to the nineteenth century. The most commonly adopted approach, popularized in particular by Angus Maddison and labeled “long-span” estimates by Marianne Ward and John Devereux, is to use time-series projection from a recent benchmark.Maddison, Monitoring; and Ward and Devereux, “Measuring British Decline.” The alternative procedure, labeled “direct estimates” by …
When and why did eastern European economies begin to fail? Lessons from a Czechoslovak/UK productivity comparison, 1921–1991
Real Wages, Productivity, and Unemployment in Britain and Germany during the 1920′s
Economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa, 1885–2008
Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has been absent from recent debates about comparative long-run growth owing to the lack of data on aggregate economic performance before 1950. This paper provides estimates of GDP per capita on an annual basis for eight Anglophone African economies for the period since 1885, raising new questions about previous characterizations of the region's economic performance. The new data show that many of these economies had level…
UK productivity performance from 1950 to 1979
The North European depression of the 1920s
While the rest of the world enjoyed relative prosperity during the 1920s, Northern Europe remained depressed. In particular, Britain and Scandinavia suffered relatively high rates of unemployment. In this paper, we investigate the links between the North European Depression and currency overvaluation. The role of currency overvaluation has received much attention in the British case, but has been relatively neglected in the economic history of Sc…
Fiscal Policy in Britain During the 1930s
Aggregate Supply in Interwar Britain
Journal Article Aggregate Supply in Interwar Britain Get access S. N. Broadberry S. N. Broadberry University College, Cardiff Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Economic Journal, Volume 96, Issue 382, 1 June 1986, Pages 467–481, https://doi.org/10.2307/2233127 Published: 01 June 1986
Purchasing Power Parity and the Pound-Dollar Rate in the 1930s
Opponents of flexible exchange rates have stressed their volati lity during the 1930s, while advocates of flexible exchange rates have stressed their relationship to fundamental economic variables. The author reconciles the two views, allowing that although exchange rates did move to preserve pruchasing power parity in the long run, there could be substantial deviations from purchasing power parity in the short run. For the pound-dollar rate, the…
The British Economy between the Wars; A Macroeconomic Survey
The emergence of mass unemployment
S. N. Broadberry, The Emergence of Mass Unemployment: Explaining Macroeconomic Trends in Britain during the Trans-World War I Period, The Economic History Review, Vol. 43, No. 2 (May, 1990), pp. 271-282
The emergence of mass unemployment
One of the purposes of my article' was to stimulate debate on the events that occurred in the aftermath of World War I, since the literature on interwar unemployment concentrates heavily on the period from the mid I920S. Thus in one sense I welcome the comment by Glynn and Booth,2 although this must be tempered by the fact that they misrepresent my views, adding a touch of irony to their title. In fact, rather than making one or two precise, subs…
The Emergence of Mass Unemployment
Britain's Productivity Gap in the 1930s
This article proposes a reinterpretation of the failure of interwar British productivity levels to match those of the United States. We argue that key elements in poor British productivity performance included inadequate human capital, a bargaining environment that allowed workers to maintain restrictive practices, and collusive agreements that limited the exit of inefficient firms. We suggest that weaknesses in the structure of British firms poi…
New Perspectives on the Late Victorian Economy
Journal Article New Perspectives on the Late Victorian Economy: Essays in Quantitative Economic History 1860-1914 Get access New Perspectives on the Late Victorian Economy: Essays in Quantitative Economic History 1860-1914. Edited by FOREMAN-PECK (JAMES). (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Pp. xv + 353. £30.00 hardback, US $54.50 hardback. ISBN 0 521 39107 5.) Stephen Broadberry Stephen Broadberry University of Warwick Sea…
Britain in the International Economy
Journal Article Britain in the International Economy Get access Britain in the International Economy. Edited by S. N. Broadberry and N. F. R. Crafts. (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992. Pp. xiv + 426. £40.00 hardback. ISBN 0 521 41859 3.) R. E. Bailey R. E. Bailey University of Essex Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Economic Journal, Volume 103, Issue 419, 1 July 1993, Pages 1070–…
Manufacturing and the Convergence Hypothesis
The commonly accepted chronology for comparative productivity levels, based on GDP data, does not apply to the manufacturing sector, which shows evidence of a much greater degree of stationarity of comparative labor productivity performance among the major industrialized countries of Britain, Germany, and the United States. These results for manufacturing suggest that convergence of GDP per worker must have occurred through trends in other sector…
US and UK Unemployment between the Wars
Comparative Productivity in British and American Manufacturing during the Nineteenth Century
Technological Leadership and Productivity Leadership in Manufacturing Since the Industrial Revolution
The United States has been the labour productivity leader in manufacturing since the early nineteenth century despite changes in technological leadership from Britain to the United States and then to Germany and Japan. US productivity leadership is based on the more widespread use of mass production rather than craft production methods, determined by resource and factor endowments and demand patterns. The two systems can coexist so long as the te…
Britain in the International Economy, 1870-1939
Real Wages, Productivity, and Unemployment in Britain and Germany during the 1920′s
Increasing Returns and Path Dependence in the Economy
British Economic Policy and Industrial Performance in the Early Post-War Period
This paper explores the implications of the post-war settlement for British industrial productivity performance during the period 1945–60. We argue that the exigencies of the situation at the end of the war precluded supply-side reforms which might have promoted faster growth. At the same time, however, the informal 'social contract' which emerged was conducive to low unemployment without inflation. Building upon our earlier findings for the 1930…
Themes in Macroeconomic History
Vive la différence
Este trabajo examina el proceso de convergencia en perspectiva histórica a nivel desagregado. Tomando en consideración la producción, la renta y el gasto este trabajo muestra una gran diversidad geográfica y temporal. Cada país se especializó según su ventaja comparativa y la convergencia se produjo tanto a través de cambios en su estructura productiva, como a niveles microeconómicos. Asimismo, variaciones en la proporción de las facturas condujo…
The Long Run Growth and Productivity Performance of the United Kingdom
This paper examines Britain's long run growth and productivity performance since the late nineteenth century, taking an international comparative perspective and disaggregating by sector. Britain was richer than the United States and Germany in 1870 largely because of high levels of labour productivity in services and agriculture rather than in industry, together with a highly favourable structure, particularly a small share of the labour force i…
How Did the United States and Germany Overtake Britian? A Sectoral Analysis of Comparative Productivity Levels, 1870–1990
A sectoral analysis of comparative labor productivity levels over the period 1870 to 1990 suggests mechanisms of catching-up and forging ahead that are rather different from those found in the conventional literature. Both Germany and the United States caught up with and overtook Britain in terms of aggregate labor productivity largely by shifting resources out of agriculture and improving their relative productivity position in services rather t…
The Post-War Settlement
Competition and Innovation in 1950s Britain
We find little support for the Schumpeterian hypothesis of a positive relationship between market power and innovation in 1950's Britain even though many economists and policymakers accepted it at the time. Pricefixing agreements were very widespread prior to the 1956 Restrictive Practices Act and they seem to have had adverse effects on costs and productivity. Competition policy appears to have been much too lenient but the productivity problems…
Economics (59 obras) · Historical Economic and Social Studies (41 obras) · Geography (28 obras) · Economy (26 obras) · Macroeconomics (26 obras) · Political science (24 obras) · Economic growth (21 obras) · Economic Growth and Productivity (20 obras) · Economic history (20 obras) · Productivity (20 obras)