Here is an introduction to the study of the international economy as a mechanism for diffusing modern economic growth between nations. It is divided into three parts, of which the first examines the workings of the system in the years before 1914. This includes an analysis of the conditions favorable to the growth of international economic relations during the period, examines the changing character of the international flows of labor, capital and trade, and surveys contemporary commercial and international monetary policies. This first part concludes with a chapter analyzing the international economy as a mechanism for diffusing economic growth, and another chapter examining the nature of the economic trends and fluctuations associated with this phase in the growth of the international economic system. The second part gives an account of the collapse of the international economy during the interwar years, and traces the causes of collapse to changes in the structure and functioning of the system brought about by World War I and the depression of the 1930s. The final part takes the story beyond World War II. It describes the wartime and post-war efforts to reconstruct the international economic system, and examines the working of the new system in the period after 1945, bringing out both its strengths and its weaknesses.

This text is widely acknowledged to be the best available introduction to the study of the international economy as a mechanism for diffusing modern economic growth between nations. Updating the story to the present day, this edition covers the latest developments in international economics. Significant new additions include: * globalization and the world economy * the growth of regional trading blocs * globalization and financial crisis in Asia * transition to the market in post-communist economies Packed with new references and data, The Growth of the International Economy is an indispensable guide to the world economy as it enters the new millennium.

A brief, up-to-date account of Italy's transformation from an agrarian state to an industrial powerhouse.

How was life in 1820 and how has it improved since then? What are the long-term trends in global well-being? Trends in real GDP per capita may not fully reflect changes in other dimensions of well-being, such as life expectancy, educational attainment, personal security, and gender inequality. The product of collaboration between the OECD, the OECD Development Centre, and the CLIOINFRA project, this report represents the work of a group of economic historians to systematically chart long-term changes in the dimensions of global wellbeing and inequality, making use of the best sources and expertise currently available and the most recent research carried out within the discipline. The historical evidence reviewed in the report is organized on ten different dimensions of well-being that mirror those used by the OECD in its report, How's Life? (www.oecd.org/howslife): per capita GDP, real wages, educational attainment, life expectancy, height, personal security, political institutions, environmental quality, income inequality, and gender inequality

How the rise of globalization over the past two centuries helps explain the income gap between rich and poor countries today. Today's wide economic gap between the postindustrial countries of the West and the poorer countries of the third world is not new. Fifty years ago, the world economic order—two hundred years in the making—was already characterized by a vast difference in per capita income between rich and poor countries and by the fact that poor countries exported commodities (agricultural or mineral products) while rich countries exported manufactured products. In Trade and Poverty, leading economic historian Jeffrey G. Williamson traces the great divergence between the third world and the West to this nexus of trade, commodity specialization, and poverty. Analyzing the role of specialization, de-industrialization, and commodity price volatility with econometrics and case studies of India, Ottoman Turkey, and Mexico, Williamson demonstrates why the close correlation between trade and poverty emerged. Globalization and the great divergence were causally related, and thus the rise of globalization over the past two centuries helps account for the income gap between rich and poor countries today.

The result of two years work by 19 experienced policymakers and two Nobel prize-winning economists, 'The Growth Report' is the most complete analysis to date of the ingredients which, if used in the right country-specific recipe, can deliver growth and help lift populations out of poverty.