This blog post was written by Maria Gomez Leon, researcher in Economic History at  University of Groningen The rise of the middle class during the process of economic development has become a major research topic. This has been fuelled by the expansion of this social group in Latin America during the last decade. The Brazilian case is extra […]

Flora Macher is a PhD student at London School of Economics Financial crises are a “hardy perennial” and while their recurrence never fails to cause substantial economic loss, on the positive side, researchers of financial history have a long record of episodes that they can use as a comparative reference when they are analyzing the […]

The publication of the 2010 Eurostat Regional Yearbook provides evidence to portray regional (NUTS2) income inequality in the European Union. Several features stand out. First, the wealthiest region, Inner London, has a per-capita GDP that is 3.24 times greater than the EU-27 average. Besides, Inner London’s per-capita GDP is 12 times that of Severozapaden (Bulgaria), […]

The Greek financial crisis has laid bare serious economic fragilities in the South-Eastern corner of the 19 member strong euro area: a government debt stock of 170% of GDP, a dangerous bank-sovereign embrace, and an economy in its seventh year of recession which has declined more than a quarter since its 2008 peak.  Matthias Morys […]

For the Chinese people, the 19th century was not only a century of economic stagnation, massive uprisings, and humiliation in the face of foreign aggressors, but also of devastating natural catastrophes probably causing millions to die of starvation and epidemics. One of these disasters was the flood in 1823, at the beginning of Emperor Daoguang’s […]

For most of the sixteenth century, Spanish political might rose together with a sustained and intense economic development, allowing the country to remain among the most affluent nations of Europe. However, with the turn of the century economic growth halted, and was followed by a rapid decline. The crisis of the seventeenth century was particularly […]

This blog post was written byLeandro Prados de la Escosura,professor in Economic history at Unidersidad Carlos III de Madrid  How much has well-being improved in Latin America over time? How does Latin America compare to the advanced nations? Have their differences widened? Why?  Trends in well-being have been drawn on the basis of GDP per […]

Philip II of Spain Philip II ruled the first global empire with the limited state resources of the early modern age. As for any state before Waterloo, expenditures were mostly military. The celebrated silver and gold from the Americas were no more than 20 percent of his revenues, and a bit less in the first […]

New EHES Working paper by Francisco J. Beltrán Tapia and Julio Martínez-Galarraga Societies that enter on the path of ‘modern economic growth’ undergo profound transformations. Although most of the changes that accompany this process favour the achievement of higher living standards in the long run, it can also generate some social tensions, especially during the first stages. […]

This blog post was written by Mikolaj Malinowski, doctoral candidate atUtrecht University Why are some people and countries rich whereas other remain poor? What affects the relationship between average per capita income and income inequality? These questions have always been at heart of economics and economic history. According to Kuznets, due to differences in productivity, […]