Before and Beyond Divergence ─ The Politics of Economic Change in China and Europe

Rosenthal (business economics, California Institute of Technology) and Wong (history, U. of California at Los Angeles) offer a comparative analysis of economic change in China and Europe that rejects energy costs, distant land resources, the nature of people's intentions or abilities, or differential institutions as key determinants and instead point to political differences dating prior to 1750 as the key determinant. Essentially, they argue that the public finance institutions necessary for ruling a vast empire such as China differed markedly from those that became prevalent amongst the smaller competing polities of Europe and these differing public finance institutions led to differing relative prices and, hence, the different economic trajectories of Europe and China that became so marked in the 19th century. Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)