The World Economy: A Millennial Perspective

by Angus Maddison

Angus Maddison provides a comprehensive view of the growth and levels of world population since the year 1000. In this period, world population rose 22-fold, while per capita gross domestic product increased 13-fold and world GDP nearly 300-fold. The biggest gains occurred in the wealthy regions of today (Western Europe, North America, Australasia and Japan). The gap between the world leader, the United States and the poorest region, Africa, is now 20 to 1. In the year 1000, today's wealthiest countries were poorer than Asia and Africa.The book has several objectives. The first is a pioneering effort to quantify the economic performance of nations over the very long term. The second is to identify the forces which explain the success of the wealthy countries and explore the obstacles, which hindered advance in regions which lagged behind. The third is to scrutinize the interaction between the rich and the rest to assess the degree to which this relationship was exploitative.This monumental reference is a "must" for scholars of economics and economic history, and casual readers will also find much of interest. The book is a sequel to the author's Monitoring the World 1820 -1992 (OECD,1995), and his 1998 Chinese Economic Performance in the Long Run (OECD, 1998).

Genres: Economics, History, Nonfiction

384 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2001

Reviews

[Islam · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a very good overview of the economical history of the the second millennium, it's a very light book to read, it's mostly appendices, tables and figures, the rest of the text is almost 100 pages. I am not an economist or an historian but I still found this book interesting, as it gives a global outlook on the economy and the reason of the advancement of of different economies at different times.

The last chapter was a really good overview of the different economies of the world in the last 50 years of the previous millennium, this chapter is very relevant to the economic situation of all the countries in the current time. I would love it if the authors give an addendum covering the first 10 years of this millennium. And maybe a prediction of the coming years based on the trends?

I found it a bit counter-intuitive not to handle the MENA region as one block, instead talking about Asia and Africa in general. This is because the MENA region had a somewhat similar economic behavior especially for the first 600 years of the millennium and the last 50 years, this behavior is generally different than the rest of Asia and Africa. In doing so, the other fails to highlight the economical situation of the Ottoman empire that peaked at the middle of the century.

[Adrian Fanaca · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about the contours of world development, the impact of western development on the rest of the world and the world economy in the second half of the twentieth century. I remember reading from it that the world has grown at twice the speed from the 1970s to the 1990s than since the 1990s.

[omz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Goddamn brilliant. An insane task undertook masterfully. Pop off king.

[Shrey Goyal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazingly detailed and meticulous quantification of the world's economic performance over a millenium, leaving no lands, no civilisations, no society uncharted. While the systemic exploitation of the poor nations by the rich is a key thread throughout, one wishes there was more analysis and commentary. Nevertheless, an indispensable resource for anyone trying to understand global development and our world's economic history.

[Shahenshah · Rating 5 out of 5]

A definitive guide to appreciate the quantum changes that 'global normalisation' will manifest.