In what sense are institutions a deep determinant of growth? In this paper, we address this question by examining the relationship between city growth and institutional reform in 19th century Germany, when some cities experienced deep institutional reform as a result of French rule. Employing an...

China’s recent growth of trade and income is routinely characterized as staggering and the like. We zoom in on Shanghai to see which part is hyperbole and which is not taking the long view. The city is ideal for this‐‐Shanghai held more than half of China’s foreign trade in 1850 and is...

"We study the relative importance of technology and institutions as factors determining the size of markets. The setting of 19th century Europe presents a unique opportunity to address this issue, since it witnessed fundamental change in both dimensions. First, Germany went from around 1,800...