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  5. How the World Became Rich by Mark Koyama and Jared Rubin and Slouching Towards Utopia by J. Bradford DeLong: A Review Essay

Journal of Economic Literature

ISSN 0022-0515 (Print) | ISSN 2328-8175 (Online)

How the World Became Rich by Mark Koyama and Jared Rubin and Slouching Towards Utopia by J. Bradford DeLong: A Review Essay

  • Steven N. Durlauf
Journal of Economic Literature
vol. 63, no. 1, March 2025
(pp. 288–305)
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Abstract

This essay reviews two recent books on economic growth: Mark Koyama and Jared Rubin's How the World Became Rich and J. Bradford DeLong's Slouching Towards Utopia. Both books offer rich and nuanced treatments of the long-run and proximate mechanisms underlying the global growth in the past centuries. I evaluate their arguments and conclude with some reflections on conceptual shortcomings in the growth literature and some suggestions for the future.

Citation

Durlauf, Steven N. 2025. "How the World Became Rich by Mark Koyama and Jared Rubin and Slouching Towards Utopia by J. Bradford DeLong: A Review Essay." Journal of Economic Literature 63 (1): 288–305. DOI: 10.1257/jel.20231724

Additional Materials

JEL Classification

  • F54 Colonialism; Imperialism; Postcolonialism
  • J11 Demographic Trends, Macroeconomic Effects, and Forecasts
  • N10 Economic History: Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations: General, International, or Comparative
  • N30 Economic History: Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy: General, International, or Comparative
  • N40 Economic History: Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation: General, International, or Comparative
  • N60 Economic History: Manufacturing and Construction: General, International, or Comparative
  • O40 Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity: General