Smithian growth in the little divergence: a general equilibrium analysis

2025/04/04 by David Chilosi, Carlo Ciccarelli · 1 voice · 1 citation
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · #Economic theories and models #Historical Economic and Social Studies #Economic Theory and Institutions

paper · doi:10.1016/j.eeh.2025.101682

openalex publication_date 2025/04/04 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/14

Abstract

To address growing concerns on the representativeness of real wages , we generate new estimates of GDP pc in pre-industrial England and Italy, as well as new exploratory estimates for Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Poland, Spain and Sweden, with Groth and Persson's (2016) general equilibrium model. Our results question the robustness of the current theoretical consensus on the “little divergence” and suggest an alternative hypothesis: north-western Europe saw faster Smithian growth than the rest of Europe after 1500.

Citations

• The Great Divergence in European Wages and Prices from the Middle Ages to the First World War
• Engels’ pause: Technical change, capital accumulation, and inequality in the british industrial revolution
• Wages, prices, and living standards in China, 1738–1925: in comparison with Europe, Japan, and India

Cited by

• The Decline of a Fully Matured Economy: Rural and Urban Real Wages in the Republic of Venice, 1390–1790

Discussions

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