Dynamic Forces in Capitalist Development: A Long-run Comparative View - Tapa dura

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This study is a comparative analysis of the growth performance and cyclical experience of 16 advanced capitalist countries since 1820 (Western Europe, Japan, USA, Canada and Australia). It illuminates the present economic problems and policy dilemmas of these countries by providing historical and comparative perspectives. Since 1820, the advanced capitalist countries have increased their total product 70-fold and now account for half of world GDP. Their real per capita income is now 14 times what it was in 1820 and six times as high as the average for the rest of the world. This study analyzes the nature of Western progress using a standardized framework of comparative growth accounts. It identifies the causal factors responsible for this unprecedented growth. The book is a successor volume to "Phases of Capitalist Development". It contains a further updating and standardization of the quantitative data base for analyzing growth performance in the long run. It also contains an assessment of growth and levels of the capital stock and an analysis of total factor productivity. More emphasis is placed on the broader long-run forces making for change over the capitalist period as a whole.