Colonialism and Growth

TLDR: The remarkable economic growth in die post-colonial period has been a mix of continued steady growdi of the already rich countries, growth at higher, catch-up rates by some odiers, and continued stagnation or worse by some of the preindustrial societies that have been left behind as discussed by the authors.

Abstract: During the forty year period 1950-1990 world population grew at an annual rate of just under 2%, and total production of goods and services grew at 4%. This means diat production per person grew at more than 2%, implying diat income per person more than doubled over these years. These figures refer to the entire world, rich and poor alike. I have not left out die communist countries or Africa or anyone else. Nodiing remotely like this has ever been seen before.1 The remarkable economic growth in die post-colonial period has been a mix of continued steady growdi ofthe already-rich countries, growth at higher, catch-up rates by some odiers, and continued stagnation or worse by some of the preindustrial societies that have been left behind. These differences have attracted a lot ofattention from economists. Detailed worldwide data sets have been created, and patterns have been sought that might reveal why some societies have thrived in this