Nobel laureate Simon Kuznets, who did significant work on national income accounts in the 1930s: Economics Essay, UOL, Ireland

• Nobel laureate Simon Kuznets, who did significant work on national income
  accounts in the 1930s, said that the welfare of a nation can scarcely be inferred from a measurement of national income. Would you agree with him? Why or why not?
• The graph below shows an index of world GDP per capita from 1000 B.C. to the year 2000.

Source: Jeff Speakes, “Economic History of the World,” Center for Economic
Research and Forecasting, California Lutheran University

As you can see, over most of that period, global economic growth was virtually
nonexistent. While there were periods that experienced some increase in per
capita income, sustained growth begins only in the mid-eighteenth century, and explodes after that—by the year 2000, income per capita is 12 times what it had been 250 years before.

Explain what accounts for such a dramatic change in economic growth beginning in the eighteenth century.

• Parts of the world that were relatively more prosperous 500 years ago have
  experienced a reversal of fortune and are relatively poorer today. What factors
  could explain this? And what factor do you think is the most important