Economic growth and economic development 31

10

Introduction to Modern Economic Growth

Western Offshoots

log gdp per capita
8

9

Western Europe

Asia

Africa

6

7

Latin America

1800

1850

1900
year

1950

2000

Figure 1.11. The evolution of average GDP per capita in Western
Offshoots, Western Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa, 18202000.
shock are among the major questions of macroeconomics. While the Great Depression falls outside the scope of the current book, we will later discuss the relationship
between economic crises and economic growth as well as potential sources of economic volatility.
A variety of other evidence suggest that differences in income per capita were
even smaller once we go back further than 1820. Maddison also has estimates for
average income per capita for the same groups of countries going back to 1000 AD or
even earlier. We extend Figure 1.11 using these data; the results are shown in Figure
1.12. While these numbers are based on scattered evidence and guesses, the general
pattern is consistent with qualitative historical evidence and the fact that income
per capita in any country cannot have been much less than $500 in terms of 2000
US dollars, since individuals could not survive with real incomes much less than this
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