Instead, the authors demonstrate how wealth is created through factors including institutions, the rule of law and property rights.

The work of scholars like Kyle Harper, Peter Temin, and Willem Jongman does indicate that the Roman economy was highly commercialized and urbanized (for preindustrial standards). While the book has some limitations, such as the lack of in-depth analysis of specific aspects and the potential lack of regional penetration, it effectively achieves its objectives of providing a holistic understanding of economic growth. People lived in horrific conditions and there was a lot of overcrowding, a lot of negative externalities, a lot of slum housing. As a result, the book offers a more comprehensive analysis by incorporating different perspectives, such as social, political, and environmental dimensions.But I think in a country like UK and many parts of US, planning and housing are the biggest constraints. Colonization likely played some role, and it likely played a much greater role in keeping large parts of the formerly colonized world poor. The question here, however, is whether colonization was decisive for the onset of modern economic growth. In this vein, I would have liked to see more emphasis on the now-standard critiques of the Glorious Revolution literature, as summarized in Ogilvie and Carus ( 2014 ).

Although there were ebbs and flows in pre-industrial economic growth, no society ever broke through and achieved sustained economic growth.The simplest answer is that economic growth occurred only after the rate of technological innovation became highly sustained. The book is a wide-ranging yet remarkably complete and accessible survey of the Great Enrichment, the emergence of modern and prosperous economies that provide us with a material standard of living that our ancestors could not have dreamed of.

It presents complex economic concepts clearly and understandably, avoiding excessive technical jargon. You try to explain two broad things about sustained economic growth: why it started when it did (in the mid-18th century) and why it started where it did (England). I think one thing the history of technology has taught us is that as long as the incentives are there for innovators to innovate, we will continue to be surprised. In addition, they shed light on the interplay between political, social, and economic factors and their impact on long-term growth. Javier Mejia is an economist teaching at Stanford University, whose work focuses on the intersection between social networks and economic history.Subsequently it has spread to most, but not all, areas of the world, transforming the planet and the lives of those who live on it.