In the Belle Époque, Belgium recorded an unprecedented trade boom, but growth in output per capita was lackluster. We … seek to reconcile this ostensible paradox. Because of the sharp decline in both fixed and variable trade costs, the trade … illustrate these claims. In line with new trade theory, the effect of trade on productivity was mediated by sector-level firm …

Prevailing views suggest the Industrial Revolution began in Europe because markets had gradually become more efficient … compares the actual performance of markets in Europe and China, two regions of the world that were relatively advanced in the … findings suggest that relative levels of market function in China and Europe were similar prior to the Industrial Revolution …

As measured by the pace of city growth in western Europe from 1000 to 1800. absolutist monarchs stunted the growth of … commerce and industry. A region ruled by an absolutist prince saw its total urban population shrink by one hundred thousand …

In the centuries leading up to the Industrial Revolution, Western Europe gradually pulled ahead of other world regions … explain the rise of Europe relative to regions that relied on the transmission of knowledge within extended families or clans …

leveraging variation in Amsterdam's spatial distribution of tourists as a demand shifter, finding significant heterogeneity in …

the efficient institution to do so was Parliament. We show that royal boroughs with trade-favoring geography were much …