Debin Ma

TL;DR: The authors developed data on the history of wages and prices in Beijing, Canton, and Shanghai in China from the eighteenth century to the twentieth, and compared them with leading cities in Europe, Japan, and India in terms of nominal wages, the cost of living, and the standard of living.

TL;DR: This article developed an integrated framework for understanding the entire history, including both the divergence and the recent convergent trend of China's long-term economic dynamics, and explained how deeply embedded political and economic institutions that contributed to a long process of extensive growth before 1800 prevented China from capturing the benefits associated with the Industrial Revolution.

TL;DR: The authors examined the long-term trend of living standards and human capital for China during the eighteenth to twentieth centuries and found a substantial gap in living standards between China and Northwestern Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors developed data on the history of wages and prices in China from the eighteenth century to the twentieth, and used these data to compare Beijing, Canton, Suzhou and Shanghai to leading cities in Europe, India, and Japan in terms of nominal wages, the cost of living, and the standard of living.

TL;DR: This article developed data on the history of wages and prices in Beijing, Canton, and Shanghai in China from the eighteenth century to the twentieth, and compared them with leading cities in Europe, Japan, and India in terms of nominal wages, the cost of living, and the standard of living.