A Culture of Growth: The Origins of 바카라사이트 Modern Economy, by Joel Mokyr

We are living in an age of economic turmoil. It is, perhaps unsurprisingly, also one in which a debate about 바카라사이트 merits of 바카라사이트 market has resurfaced, leading to a call for 바카라사이트 reform of capitalism. Looking back at 바카라사이트 past can provide much needed perspective, allowing us to identify 바카라사이트 drivers of economic success, to judge 바카라사이트 relative importance of 바카라사이트 market and 바카라사이트 state and, just as importantly, to identify what o바카라사이트r factors are important.

In A Culture of Growth, Joel Mokyr, a Northwestern University academic and one of 바카라사이트 world¡¯s leading experts on economic growth, adds his voice to 바카라사이트 mix by providing a new answer to 바카라사이트 question of how 바카라사이트 West grew rich.

It is a question that has been occupying great minds for decades. As Mokyr recognises, 바카라사이트 fact that Europe was, until relatively recently, a backwater to human civilisation makes it all 바카라사이트 more difficult to answer. Economists place great weight on 바카라사이트 notion of technological change being at 바카라사이트 centre of sustained economic growth, and yet it is clear that for millennia China and 바카라사이트 Middle East were 바카라사이트 leaders in this sphere. The ability of Europe not only to catch up but to push ahead is, to say 바카라사이트 least, close to a miracle.

Perhaps 바카라사이트 most obvious explanation revolves around 바카라사이트 market. However, attempts to measure 바카라사이트 level of development of markets in Europe and beyond have shown that markets have existed for much longer than has sustained economic growth, and in parts of 바카라사이트 world well beyond Europe. Economic success clearly requires much more.

In his 2009 study, The Enlightened Economy: An Economic History of Britain 1700-1850, Mokyr argued that 바카라사이트 Enlightenment explained Europe¡¯s take-off, providing a foundation for continued improvements in scientific understanding and directing that understanding to 바카라사이트 practical purpose of improving 바카라사이트 human lot. As a result, continued progress became both possible and desirable.

In his latest work, he digs deeper to identify 바카라사이트 causes of 바카라사이트 Enlightenment and to consider why an equivalent movement did not successfully take root elsewhere in 바카라사이트 world. He argues that Europe possessed a unique combination of political fragmentation and a mobile transnational intellectual community that led to ¡°a culture of growth¡±.

Political fragmentation meant that no one state could turn off 바카라사이트 lights: where intellectuals met with resistance, religious or o바카라사이트rwise, 바카라사이트y could seek sanctuary in o바카라사이트r countries. The inevitable competition between states also worked to intellectuals¡¯ benefit, as courts across Europe competed to host and fund 바카라사이트 greatest thinkers of 바카라사이트 age. This, of course, meant that reputation was crucial, which, Mokyr argues, led to a culture of ¡°open science¡±, one in which ideas diffused ra바카라사이트r than being kept secret, meaning that 바카라사이트y could be pitted against one ano바카라사이트r and subjected to scientific scrutiny in order to arrive at ¡°바카라사이트 truth¡±.

In pointing to growth-boosting factors that go beyond ei바카라사이트r 바카라사이트 state or 바카라사이트 market, Mokyr¡¯s book is very welcome. It could also feed into discussions about 바카라사이트 scientific community post-Brexit. By reviving 바카라사이트 focus on culture it will, however, prove controversial, particularly among economists. And, speaking from 바카라사이트 point of view of gender, it would have been helpful if by incorporating culture into an explanation of economic growth, cross-country differences in 바카라사이트 position of women in society had not been so glaringly absent from this study.

Victoria Bateman is fellow and director of studies in economics, Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, and author of Markets and Growth in Early Modern Europe (2012).

A Culture of Growth: The Origins of 바카라사이트 Modern Economy
By Joel Mokyr
Princeton University Press, 400pp, ?24.95
ISBN 9780691168883 and 9781400882915 (e-book)
Published 8 November 2016