The work provides quantitative inter-temporal and international perspectives for assessing performance in 16 European capitalist countries, and examines the forces which have shaped their development. From a historical perspective, the author looks back over the five main phases of the modern...

The paper is a contribution to a series of recollections and reflections on the professional experiences of distinguished economists which the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro Quarterly Review started in 1979. Angus Maddison recounts his life and career as an economist.

The paper analyses the developments in labour productivity over the past century and examines the factors which explain variations in its pace of growth. The author distinguishes four main phases: 1870-1913, 1913-50, 1950-70 and the 1970s. The main question at hand is why the postwar record has...