When the Third World fell behind -- The first global century up to 1913 -- Biggest Third World terms of trade boom ever? -- The economics of Third World growth engines and dutch diseases -- Measuring third world de-industrialization and Dutch disease -- An Asian de-industrialization illustration...

A Third World data base documenting commodity and factor prices 1870-1940 has been collected, yielding annual time series on wage/rental ratios, land/labor ratios, the terms of trade, and other explanatory variables for: Argentina, Burma, Egypt, Japan, Korea, the Punjab, Taiwan, Thailand and...

Poor countries are more volatile than rich countries, and we know this volatility impedes their growth. We also know that commodity price volatility is a key source of those shocks. This paper explores commodity and manufactures price over the past three centuries to answer three questions: Has...