Angus Maddison and Development Economics
Adam Szirmai
#2011-035
This paper was prepared for the Angus Maddison Memorial conference, held
in November 2010 at the International Institute of Social History in
Amsterdam. The paper reflects on Angus Maddison's contributions to
development economics. It focuses on the following issues: 1.
quantification in development economics and the framework of proximate
and ultimate causality in growth and development; 2 the debate about
levels of GDP per capita in the middle of the eighteenth century; 3
Maddison versus the Malthusians; 4 measurement of Chinese Economic
Performance in the long run; 5. the impact of Western expansion on the
non-Western world and 6. the role of institutions in economic
development.
Key words: Economic Growth, Development Economics, GDP per capita,
China, Western Expansion, Institutions
JEL: N10, O10