Beyond Europe: Long-Run Development Across Late Modernizers in Eurasia

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

The origins of the Great Divergence, by which Western Europe took off economically and politically, while the “Rest” of Eurasia lagged behind, are the subject of a major debate in the social sciences. Yet much of the extant literature treats Western Europe as the benchmark. There is a relative lack of comparisons between non-Western European parts of Eurasia themselves. To make progress on this front, this panel will undertake an in-depth look at economic and political development within several late modernizers, including Eastern Europe, the Middle East, India, and China. Each work employs novel, micro-level data. By analyzing long-run development patterns across late modernizers in Eurasia themselves, we will improve our knowledge of the origins of the Great Divergence.

Sub Unit

• Division 6: Political Economy

Individual Presentations

• Migration, Diversity, and Economic Development in Eastern Europe - Volha Charnysh, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• The (non-)Transition to Impersonal Exchange Institutions in Ottoman Istanbul - Timur Kuran, Duke University; Jared Rubin, Chapman University

• State-Building at the Grassroots in India: Agra District, 1871-2011 - Alexander Lee, University of Rochester

• Internal Conflict and State Development: Evidence from Imperial China - Mark Dincecco, University of Michigan; Yuhua Wang, Harvard University

Chair

• David Stasavage New York University

Discussants

• Giuliana Pardelli New York University Abu Dhabi

• Pavithra Suryanarayan Johns Hopkins University