Re: poly: Sources of historical economic data

Hal asks:
>> Britain roughly doubled its GDP from 1830 to 1870, and then doubled again
>> from 1870 to 1910. (Per-capita growth was slower, doubling once in this
>> whole period.) Britain grew *slower* than the rest of Europe.
>
>Can anyone provide pointers to online sources of historical economic data
>like this? A while back I was looking for information on US GNP growth
>rates during the 19th century and my normal web search techniques were
>not successful.

I don't think it's on the web. But it is in books. It's reprinted in Barro
& Sala-I-Martin's "Economic Growth". I'll photocopy relevant parts and mail
paper mail them to someone willing to scan them in & post them on the web.
Or if no one voluteers, I'll just send them to Hal (assuming he gives me
a paper mail address).

The best primary sources are books by Angus Maddison. See:
http://www.u-paris10.fr/ActuelMarx/economarx/ab110803.htm
http://www.oecd.org/publications/catalog/41/41_95_09_1.html

Robin Hanson
hanson@econ.berkeley.edu http://hanson.berkeley.edu/
RWJF Health Policy Scholar, Sch. of Public Health 510-643-1884
140 Warren Hall, UC Berkeley, CA 94720-7360 FAX: 510-643-8614
Received on Fri May 1 17:07:38 1998