Log Population Density in 1500 6 7 8 9 10 AGO ARG AUS BDI BEN BHS BLZ BOL BRA BRB BWA CAF CAN CHL CIV CMR COL COM CPV CRI ECU EGY ERI GAB GHA GIN GMB GRD GUY HKG HND HTI IDN IND JAM KEN
Trang 1Introduction to Modern Economic Growth
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Log Population Density in 1500
6 7 8 9 10
AGO
ARG AUS
BDI
BEN
BHS
BLZ
BOL BRA
BRB
BWA
CAF
CAN
CHL
CIV CMR COL
COM CPV
CRI
ECU
EGY
ERI
GAB
GHA GIN GMB
GRD
GUY HKG
HND
HTI
IDN
IND JAM
KEN KNA
LAO
LCA
LKA
LSO
MAR
MDG MEX
MLI MOZ MRT
MWI
MYS NAM
NIC
NPL
NZL
PAK
PAN
PER PHL PRY
RWA
SDN SEN
SGP
SLE
SLV
TCD
TGO
TTO
TUN
TZA
UGA
URY USA
VCT VEN
VNM ZAF
ZAR ZMB ZWE
Figure 4.6 Reversal of Fortune: population density in 1500 versus
income per capita in 1995 them on the former European colonies
the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries Moreover, a wealth of qualitative and quantitative evidence suggests that this went hand in hand with industrializa-tion (see, for example, Acemoglu, Johnson and Robinson, 2002) Figure 4.8 shows average urbanization in colonies with relatively low and high urbanization in 1500 The initially high-urbanization countries have higher levels of urbanization and pros-perity until around 1800 At that time the initially low-urbanization countries start
to grow much more rapidly and a prolonged period of divergence begins
These patterns are clearly inconsistent with simple geography based views of relative prosperity In 1500 it was the countries in the tropics which were relatively prosperous, today it is the reverse This makes it implausible to base a theory of rel-ative prosperity on the intrinsic poverty of the tropics, climate, disease environments
or other fixed characteristics
Nevertheless, following Diamond (1997), one could propose what Acemoglu, Johnson and Robinson (2002a) call a “sophisticated geography hypothesis,” which claims that geography matters but in a time varying way For example, Europeans
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