Morys, Matthias orcid.org/0000-0002-6460-2575 (2022) Has Eastern Europe always lagged behind the West? Historical evidence from Pre-1870. Review of Income and Wealth. S3-S21. ISSN 1475-4991
Abstract
The collapse of communism in Central, East and South-East Europe led to great hopes in the early 1990s. Three decades on, the initial optimism has given way to a mixed assessment: while the political transformation appears irreversible in some countries, a relapse to more authoritarian forms of government has occurred elsewhere. Similarly, the economic catch-up process takes much longer than originally anticipated. Many of the challenges might not be a legacy of state socialism but could be more deeply rooted. We provide an overview of where quantitative economic history research stands on the origins and persistence of this fundamental West-East-divide, focusing on the period before 1870 (by which time income differences were well established). Serfdom was proposed as an early answer. Non-agricultural explanations fall into three strands: demography, institutional weaknesses, and market access. We briefly discuss to what extent the factors identified here might have generated long-run stagnation in region.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2021 International Association for Research in Income and Wealth. This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy. Further copying may not be permitted; contact the publisher for details |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of York |
Academic Units: | The University of York > Faculty of Social Sciences (York) > Economics and Related Studies (York) |
Depositing User: | Pure (York) |
Date Deposited: | 26 May 2023 08:10 |
Last Modified: | 09 Mar 2025 00:09 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1111/roiw.12537 |
Status: | Published |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1111/roiw.12537 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:199601 |
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