The Kuznetsian paradigm for the study of China’s economic history

O'Brien, Patrick and Deng, Kent ORCID: 0000-0002-9795-3646 (2025) The Kuznetsian paradigm for the study of China’s economic history. In: Magee, Gary B. and Deng, Kent, (eds.) The European Miracle and Beyond: Essays in Honour of Professor E. L. Jones. Palgrave Studies in Economic History. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, CH. ISBN 9783031902475 (In Press)

Text (OBrien-Deng-Ch5) - Accepted Version Pending embargo until 1 January 2100. Download (1MB)

Abstract

This chapter tackles the ongoing debate of the Great Divergence which involves economic data and parameters. Despite China’s super-long tradition of Confucian education, literacy rates, imperial bureaucracy and record-keeping, trustworthy data – be they community outputs and prices, cadastral surveys and population concusses – are in fact hard to obtain. This chapter testifies fundamental problems with China’s historical records that are incompatible with and unsuited for modern data compilation and analysis. Thus, it is difficult to compare China with Europe (or a region of China with a region of Europe) without huge margins of error.

Item Type:	Book Section
Official URL:	https://link.springer.com/book/9783031902475
Additional Information:	© 2025 The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
Divisions:	Economic History
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions
JEL classification:	N - Economic History > N1 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Growth and Fluctuations > N15 - Asia including Middle East N - Economic History > N1 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Growth and Fluctuations > N13 - Europe: Pre-1913
Date Deposited:	21 Aug 2025 08:09
Last Modified:	22 Aug 2025 12:57
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/129188

Actions (login required)

View Item