A review of the literature on historical comparisons of levels of development suggests that disparities between now and advanced and lagging countries around 1760 were most likely quite small and, if extreme observations at both ends are excluded, probably nonexistent. When purchasing power...

This paper works out some of the basic properties of an economy where energy is the driving force behind all economic activities. The economy now consists of streams of energy conversions that direct energy to the production of goods and services. The focus on energy generates a variety of...

This article critiques W. Arthur Lewis’s economic explanation of the division of the world into industrial and agricultural countries. His claim that industrialization in the tropics was held back by small markets and adverse factoral terms of trade is flawed and lacks empirical support....