Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T00:14:12.975Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

16 - Consequences of Growth: Living Standards and Inequality

from Part II - Factors Governing Differential Outcomes in the Global Economy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2021

By
Jan Luiten van Zanden ,
Bas van Leeuwen  and
Yi Xu
Edited by
Stephen Broadberry  and
Kyoji Fukao
Stephen Broadberry
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
Kyoji Fukao
Affiliation:
Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo
Get access

Summary

This chapter discusses the consequences of industrialization and growth for the standard of living of the world’s population. The estimates concerning GDP growth, life expectancy, and educational attainment are discussed and an inequality-adjusted human development index is constructed and presented. At the onset of the process of modern economic growth in 1800 there were already large differences in well-being between the advanced economies in Europe and North America and the rest of the world, which further widened during the ninteenth century. This widening was the result of faster growth of the core economies; only rarely did countries show a substantial decline. The decrease of GDP per capita in China between 1700 and 1900 is a rare exception to this rule.

Keywords

living standardGreat Divergenceeconomic growthwell-beinglife expectancyeducation
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Economic History of the Modern World , pp. 391 - 411
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Acemoglu, D., Johnson, S. and Robinson, J. A. (2001). ‘The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation’, American Economic Review, 91(5), 1369–1401.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Acemoglu, D., Johnson, S. and Robinson, J. A (2002). ‘The Reversal of Fortune: Geography and Institutions in the Making of the Modern World Income Distribution’, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 117(4), 1231–1294.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
A’Hearn, B., Baten, J. and Crayen, D. (2009). ‘Quantifying Quantitative Literacy: Age Heaping and the History of Human Capital’, Journal of Economic History, 69(3), 783–808.Google Scholar
Albouy, D. Y. (2012). ‘The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation: Comment’, American Economic Review, 102(6), 3059–3076.Google Scholar
Allen, R. C. (2001). ‘The Great Divergence in European Wages and Prices from the Middle Ages to the First World War’, Explorations in Economic History, 38(4), 411–447.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allen, R. C. (2007). ‘India in the Great Divergence’, in Williamson, J. G., Hatton, T. J., O’Rourke, K. H. and Taylor, A. M. (eds.), The New Comparative Economic History: Essays in Honor of Jeffrey G. Williamson, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 9–32.Google Scholar
Allen, R. C. (2009). ‘Engels’ Pause: Technical Change, Capital Accumulation, and Inequality in the British Industrial Revolution’, Explorations in Economic History, 46(4), 418–435.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allen, R. C., Bassino, J.-P., Ma, D., Moll-Murata, C. and van Zanden, J. L. (2011). ‘Wages, Prices, and Living Standards in China, 1738–1925: In Comparison with Europe, Japan, and India’, Economic History Review, 64(1), 8–38.Google Scholar
Allen, R. C., Murphy, T. E. and Schneider, E. B. (2012). ‘The Colonial Origins of Divergence in the Americas: A Labor Market Approach’, Journal of Economic History, 72(4), 863–894.Google Scholar
Antonovsky, A. (1967). ‘Social Class, Life Expectancy and Overall Mortality’, The Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly, 45, 31–76.Google Scholar
Arroyo Abad, L., Davies, E. and van Zanden, J. L. (2012). ‘Between Conquest and Independence: Real Wages and Demographic Change in Spanish America, 1530–1820’, Explorations in Economic History, 49(2), 149–166.Google Scholar
Baten, J. (2013). ‘Numeracy Estimates (ABCC) by Birth Decade and Country, Both Before and After 1800’, Clio-infra, clio-infra.eu/Indicators/NumeracyTotal.html (accessed 9 November 2020).Google Scholar
Bellu, L. and Liberati, P. (2006). ‘Policy Impacts on Inequality: Welfare-Based Measures of Inequality – The Atkinson Index’, EASYPol Series, 50, Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.Google Scholar
Benavot, A. and Riddle, P. (1988). ‘The Expansion of Primary Education, 1870–1940: Trends and Issues’, Sociology of Education, 61(3), 191–210.Google Scholar
Bengtsson, T. and van Poppel, F. (2011). ‘Socioeconomic Inequalities in Death from Past to Present: An Introduction’, Explorations in Economic History, 48, 343–356.Google Scholar
Bolt, J., Inklaar, R., de Jong, H. and van Zanden, J. L. (2018), ‘Rebasing “Maddison”: New Income Comparisons and the Shape of Long-Run Economic Development’, University of Groningen, Groningen Growth and Development Centre Research Memorandum GD-174.Google Scholar
Broadberry, S. N., Campbell, B. M. S., Klein, A., Overton, M. and van Leeuwen, B. (2015a). British Economic Growth 1270–1870, Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Broadberry, S. N., Custodis, J. and Gupta, B. (2015b). ‘India and the Great Divergence: An Anglo-Indian Comparison of GDP Per Capita, 1600–1871’, Explorations in Economic History, 55, 58–75.Google Scholar
Broadberry, S. N., Guan, H. and Daokui Li, D. (2018). ‘China, Europe, and the Great Divergence: A Study in Historical National Accounting, 980–1850’, Journal of Economic History, 78(4), 955–1000.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carmichael, S., de Pleijt, A., van Zanden, J. L. and de Moor, T. (2016). ‘The European Marriage Pattern and its Measurement’, Journal of Economic History, 76(1), 196–204.Google Scholar
Challú, A. E. and Gómez-Galvarriato, A. (2015). ‘Mexico’s Real Wages in the Age of the Great Divergence, 1730–1930’, Revista de Historia Económica, 33(1), 83–122.Google Scholar
Chen, N. (1959). A Collection of Gravestone Inscriptions in the Qing Dynasty, Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company (陈乃乾, 清代碑传文通检, 中华书局 1959年2月).Google Scholar
Clark, G. (1987). ‘Why Isn’t the Whole World Developed? Lessons from the Cotton Mills’, Journal of Economic History, 47(1), 141–173.Google Scholar
Coatsworth, J. H. (2008). ‘Inequality, Institutions and Economic Growth in Latin America’, Journal of Latin American Studies, 40(3), 545–569.Google Scholar
Cummins, N. (2017). ‘Lifespans of the European Elite, 800–1800’, Journal of Economic History, 77(2), 406–439.Google Scholar
Cvrcek, T. (2013). ‘Wages, Prices, and Living Standards in the Habsburg Empire, 1827–1910’, Journal of Economic History, 73(1), 1–37.Google Scholar
de Ferranti, D., Perry, G. E., Ferreira, F. H. G. and Walton, M. (2004). Inequality in Latin America: Breaking with History? World Bank Latin American and Caribbean Studies. Washington, DC: World Bank.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de la Croix, D. and Licandro, O. (2015). ‘The Longevity of Famous People from Hammurabi to Einstein’, Journal of Economic Growth, 20(3), 263–303.Google Scholar
Dennison, T. and Ogilvie, S. (2014). ‘Does the European Marriage Pattern Explain Economic Growth?’, Journal of Economic History, 74(3), 651–693.Google Scholar
de Pleijt, A. M. (2018). ‘Human Capital Formation in the Long Run: Evidence from Average Years of Schooling in England, 1300–1900’, Cliometrica, 12(1), 99–126.Google Scholar
de Pleijt, A. M. and van Zanden, J. L. (2016). ‘Accounting for the “Little Divergence”: What Drove Economic Growth in Pre-Industrial Europe, 1300–1800?’, European Review of Economic History, 20(4), 387–409.Google Scholar
Engerman, S. L. and Sokoloff, K. L. (1997). ‘Factor Endowments, Institutions, and Differential Paths of Growth Among New World Economies: A View from Economic Historians of the United States’, in Harber, S. (ed.), How Latin America Fell Behind: Essays on the Economic History of Brazil and Mexico, 1800–1914, Stanford University Press, 260–304.Google Scholar
Family History Library (https://familysearch.org/search/).Google Scholar
Feinstein, C. H. (1988). ‘The Rise and Fall of the Williamson Curve’, Journal of Economic History, 48(3), 699–729.Google Scholar
Field, B. C. (1985). ‘The Evolution of Individual Property Rights in Massachusetts Agriculture, 17th–19th Centuries’, Northeastern Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, 14(2), 97–109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fink-Jensen, J. (2015). ‘Book Titles per Capita’, Clio-infra,handle.net/10622/AOQMAZ (accessed 10 October 2020).Google Scholar
Frankema, E. and Waijenburg, M. (2012). ‘Structural Impediments to African Growth? New Evidence from Real Wages in British Africa, 1880–1965’, Journal of Economic History, 72(4), 895–926.Google Scholar
Gapminder.org, ‘Child Mortality (0–5 year-olds dying per 1,000 born)’, www.gapminder.org/data/ (accessed 9 November 2020).Google Scholar
Hoffman, P. T., Jacks, D. S., Levin, P. A. and Lindert, P. H. (2002). ‘Real Inequality in Europe since 1500’, Journal of Economic History, 62(2), 322–355.Google Scholar
Juif, D.-T., and Baten, J. (2012). ‘On the Human Capital of Inca Indios Before and After the Spanish Conquest: Was There a “Pre-Colonial Legacy”?’ University of Tuebingen Working Papers in Economics and Finance 27, University of Tuebingen, Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences.Google Scholar
Kannisto, V. (2001). ‘Mode and Dispersion of the Length of Life’, Population: An English Selection, 13(1), 159–171.Google Scholar
Koepke, M. and Baten, J. (2005). ‘The Biological Standard of Living in Europe during the Last Two Millennia’, European Review of Economic History, 9(1), 61–95.Google Scholar
Komlos, J. (1998). ‘Shrinking in a Growing Economy? The Mystery of Physical Stature during the Industrial Revolution’, Journal of Economic History, 58(3), 779–802.Google Scholar
Lee, J., Feng, W. and Campbell, C. (1994). ‘Infant and Child Mortality Among the Qing Nobility: Implications for Two Types of Positive Check’, Population Studies, 48(3), 395–411.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lindert, P. H. and Williamson, J. G. (2015). ‘American Colonial Incomes, 1650–1774’, Economic History Review, 69(1), 54–77.Google Scholar
Lo Cascio, E. and Malanima, P. (2005). ‘Cycles and Stability: Italian Population Before the Demographic Transition (225 B.C.–A.D. 1900)’, Rivista di Storia Economica, 21(3), 5–40.Google Scholar
Maddison Project Database, version 2018. Bolt, J., Inklaar, R., de Jong, H. and van Zanden, J. L. (2018), ‘Rebasing “Maddison”: New Income Comparisons and the Shape of Long-Run Economic Development’, University of Groningen, Groningen Growth and Development Centre Research Memorandum GD-174.Google Scholar
Meyer, J. W., Ramirez, F. O., Rubinson, R. and Boli, J. (1977). ‘The World Educational Revolution, 1950–1970’, Sociology of Education, 50, 242–258.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meyer, J. W., Ramirez, F. O. and Nuhoglu Soysal, Y. (1992). ‘World Expansion of Mass Education, 1870–1980’, Sociology of Education, 65(2), 128–149.Google Scholar
Milanovic, B., Lindert, P. and Williamson, J. (2011). ‘Pre-Industrial Inequality’, The Economic Journal, 121(551), 255–272.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moatsos, M., Baten, J., Foldvari, P., van Leeuwen, B. and van Zanden, J. L. (2014). ‘Income Inequality Since 1820’, in van Zanden, J. L., Baten, J., Mira d’Ercole, M., Rijpma, A., Smith, A. and Timmer, M. (eds.), How Was Life? Global Well-Being Since 1820, Paris: OECD Publishing and International Institute of Social History, 199–215.Google Scholar
North, D. C., Summerhill, W. and Weingast, B. R. (2000). ‘Order, Disorder, and Economic Change: Latin America vs. North America’, in Bueno de Mesquita, B. and Root, H. (eds.), Governing for Prosperity, New Haven: Yale University Press, 17–58.Google Scholar
Ohkawa, K. and Rosovsky, H. (1973). Japanese Economic Growth: Trend Acceleration in the Twentieth Century, Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Parthasarathi, P. (2011). Why Europe Grew Rich and Asia Did Not: Global Economic Divergence, 1600–1850, Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pinker, S. (2011). The Better Angels of our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined, Harmondsworth: Penguin.Google Scholar
Pomeranz, K. (2000). The Great Divergence. China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy, Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
de la Escosura, Prados, L. (2012). ‘Output per Head in Pre-Independence Africa: Quantitative Conjectures’, Economic History of Developing Regions, 27(2), 1–36.Google Scholar
de la Escosura, Prados (2015). ‘World Human Development, 1870–2007’, Review of Income and Wealth 61(2), 220–247.Google Scholar
Prayon, V. and Baten, J. (2013). ‘Human Capital, Institutions, Settler Mortality, and Economic Growth in Africa, Asia and the Americas’, Working Paper, University of Tuebingen.Google Scholar
Rawski, E. (1979). Education and Popular Literacy in Ch’ing China, University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Reis, J. (2005). ‘Economic Growth, Human Capital Formation, and Consumption in Western Europe Before 1800’, in Allen, R. C., Bengtsson, T. and Dribe, M. (eds.), Living Standards in the Past, Oxford University Press, 195–225.Google Scholar
Rosenthal, J.-L. and Bin Wong, R. (2011). Before and Beyond Divergence: The Politics of Economic Change in China and Europe, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Schofield, R., Reher, D. and Bideau, A. (eds.) (1991). The Decline of Mortality in Europe, Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Sokoloff, K. L. and Engerman, S. L. (2000). ‘Institutions, Factor Endowments, and Paths of Development in the New World’, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 14(3), 217–232.Google Scholar
Studer, R. (2008). ‘India and the Great Divergence: Assessing the Efficiency of Grain Markets in Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century India’, Journal of Economic History, 68(2), 393–437.Google Scholar
United Nations (1948). Demographic Yearbook 1948, New York: United Nations.Google Scholar
United Nations (1957). Demographic Yearbook 1957, New York: United Nations.Google Scholar
United Nations (1960). Demographic Yearbook 1960. New York: United Nations.Google Scholar
United Nations (2018). Human Development Indices and Indicators: 2018 Statistical Update, New York: United Nations Development Programme.Google Scholar
van Leeuwen, B. and Li, J. (2014). ‘Education Since 1820’, in van Zanden, J. L., Baten, J., Mira d’Ercole, M., Rijpma, A., Smith, A. and Timmer, M. (eds.), How Was Life? Global Well-Being Since 1820, Paris: OECD Publishing and International Institute of Social History, 87–100.Google Scholar
van Zanden, J. L and Baten, J. (2008). ‘Book Production and the Onset of Modern Economic Growth’, Journal of Economic Growth, 13(3), 217–235.Google Scholar
van Zanden, J. L., Baten, J., Foldvari, P. and van Leeuwen, B. (2014). ‘The Changing Shape of Global Inequality 1820–2000: Exploring a New Dataset’, Review of Income and Wealth, 60(2), 279–297.Google Scholar
van Zanden, J. L., Buringh, E. and Bosker, M. (2012). ‘The Rise and Decline of European Parliaments, 1188–1789’, Economic History Review, 65(3), 835–861.Google Scholar
van Zanden, J. L. and van Leeuwen, B. (2012). ‘Persistent but not Consistent: The Growth of National Income in Holland 1347–1807’, Explorations in Economic History, 49(2), 119–130.Google Scholar
van Zanden, J. L. (1995). ‘Tracing the Beginning of the Kuznets Curve: Western Europe During the Early Modern Period’, Economic History Review, 48(4), 643–664.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
von Glahn, R. ( 1996), Fountain of Fortune: Money and Monetary Policy in China, 1000–1700, Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Williamson, J. G. (1981). ‘Urban Disamenities, Dark Satanic Mills, and the British Standard of Living Debate’, Journal of Economic History, 41(1), 75–83.Google Scholar
Williamson, J. G. (1985). Did British Capitalism Breed Inequality? Boston: Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Williamson, J. G. (2010). ‘Five Centuries of Latin American Income Inequality’, Revista De Historia Económica / Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History, 28(2), 227–252.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woods, R. and Williams, N. (1995). ‘Must the Gap Widen Before It Can Be Narrowed? Long-Term Trends in Social Class Mortality Differentials’, Continuity and Change, 10, 105–137.Google Scholar
Xu, Y., Shi, Z., van Leeuwen, B., Ni, Y., Zhang, Z. and Ma, Y. (2017). ‘Chinese National Income, c.1661–1933’, Australian Economic History Review, 57(3), 368–393.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×