Economic growth and inequality. Explaining divergent growth paths in pre-industrial Europe (late Middle Ages – 19th century) Ghent University
This proposal aims to give a new impulse to the stronger tendency in social and economic research to look at the past in order to deal with contemporary questions of unequal economic growth and prosperity. We will study the mechanisms behind the diverging growth paths in medieval and early modern Europe, which are at the basis of the current global economic model. Four test areas will be studied in a comparative way.