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Angus Maddisons New Book

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Sep 25 2007 12:00am EDT

Angus Maddison's New Book

I have very few books in my office, which is quite small, but in pride of place on my reference shelf stands Angus Maddison's masterful reference work "The World Economy". No one has spent more time or effort trying to put together reliable economic statistics for different parts of the world over the past thousand years (!), and the results are invaluable.

Now comes news that Maddison's "Contours of the World Economy 1-2030 AD: Essays in Macro-Economic History" is being released in November. This book is just as ambitious as his last, drier, tome, and looks to be aiming at Jared Diamond territory:

This book seeks to identify the forces which explain how and why some parts of the world have grown rich and others have lagged behind. Encompassing 2000 years of history, part 1 begins with the Roman Empire and explores the key factors that have influenced economic development in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Europe. Part 2 covers the development of macroeconomic tools of analysis from the 17th century to the present. Part 3 looks to the future and considers what the shape of the world economy might be in 2030. Combining both the close quantitative analysis for which Professor Maddison is famous with a more qualitative approach that takes into account the complexity of the forces at work, this book provides students and all interested readers with a totally fascinating overview of world economic history.

I can't wait.

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