The Economic Future in Historical Perspective

Demonstrates the power of using history to improve our understanding of the economic and social challenges. This work provides perspectives on the dynamics of economic growth, the challenges of economic and political transitions, and the relationships between economic growth and institutional development.

In this volume, leading modern economic historians show how analysis of past experiences contributes to a better understanding of present-day economic conditions; they offer important insights into major challenges that will occupy the attention of policy makers in the coming decades. The seventeen essays are organised around three major themes, the first of which is the changing constellation of forces sustaining long-run economic growth in market economies. The second major theme concerns the contemporary challenges posed by transitions in economic and political regimes, and by ideologies that represent legacies from past economic conditions that still affect policy responses to new 'crises'. The third theme is modern economic growth's diverse implications for human economic welfare - in terms of economic security, nutritional and health status, and old age support - and the institutional mechanisms communities have developed to cope with the risks that individuals are exposed to by the concomitants of rising prosperity.

Editors' Introduction: Thinking Historically about Tomorrow's Economic Challenges
PART ONE: DRIVERS OF LONG-TERM ECONOMIC GROWTH
The Industrious Revolution and Economic Growth, 1650-1830
English Apprenticeship: A Neglected Factor in the First Industrial Revolution
Human Capital and Productivity Performance: Britain, the United States and Germany 1870-1990
General Purpose Technologies and Surges in Productivity: Historical Reflections on the Future of the ICT Revolution
Technological Systems and Comparative Systems of Innovation: From Historical Performance to Future Policy Guidelines
PART TWO: CHANGES IN ECONOMIC REGIMES AND IDEOLOGIES
The East Asian Escape from Economic Backwardness: Retrospect and Prospect
The Russian Transition through the Historical Looking-glass: Gradual versus Abrupt Decontrol of Economic Systems in Britain and Russia
Rational Resistance to Land Privatization: The Behaviour of Russia's Rural Producers in Response to Agrarian Reforms, 1861-2000
Understanding the Past to Reshape the Future: Problems of South Africa's Transition
Lessons from Italy's Monetary Unification (1862-1880) for Euro and Europe's Single Market
Ideology and the Shadow of History: A Perspective on the Great Depression
PART THREE: WELFARE, WELL-BEING AND INDIVIDUAL ECONOMIC SECURITY
Economic Welfare Measurements and Human Well-being
The Human Body in Britain-Past and Future
Height and the High Life-What Future for a Tall Story?
Producing Health in Past and Present: The Changing Rates of Scientific and Alternative Medicine
Community and State Institutions for Individual Economic Security: The Western European Historical Experience
Paying for Old Age: Past, Present, Future