Publisher's Synopsis
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. The essays exhibit the virtue of historical narrative approaches in economics: they convey the essential elements of complex processes played out in real time and space, without requiring readers to master the formalisms of mathematical economic models. Nevertheless, these historical studies also advance the work of modern economic analysis - by revealing deep-seated and persisting forces affecting contemporary trends and policy problems, by providing the background against which truly new economic phenomena may be identified and examined. In addition, they offer a rich array of case-study materials, against which the usefulness of current theoretical frameworks, empirical methods, and criteria for both private and public decision-making, may be evaluated.
