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The use of global abstractions: national income accounting in the period of imperial decline

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  • Speich, Daniel

Abstract

This article explores the history of a conceptual world economic order of nations created by statistically minded economists over the last seventy years. Drawing upon work by Colin Clark, Richard Stone, and Simon Kuznets from the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, it reconstructs the rise of new economic indicators referring to economic inequality. Two forms of intellectual practice can be identified that characterized a remarkable shift in knowledge production in Anglo-American economics in the period of French and British imperial decline. One was new methods of counting and comparing income, which produced a sensational new view of the world as a place of enormous poverty. The other was the belief that these issues could be solved by applying a limited set of policy recommendations to all economies in the world.

Suggested Citation

  • Speich, Daniel, 2011. "The use of global abstractions: national income accounting in the period of imperial decline," Journal of Global History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 6(1), pages 7-28, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:jglhis:v:6:y:2011:i:01:p:7-28_00
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    Cited by:

    1. Deng, Kent & O'Brien, Patrick, 2021. "The Kuznetsian paradigm for the study of modern economic history and the Great Divergence with appendices of literature review and statistical data," Economic History Working Papers 108563, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
    2. S. J. Thompson, 2013. "The first income tax, political arithmetic, and the measurement of economic growth," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 66(3), pages 873-894, August.
    3. Jacob Assa & Ingrid H. Kvangraven, 2018. "Imputing Away the Ladder: Implications of Changes in National Accounting Standards for Assessing Inter-country Inequalities," Working Papers 1813, New School for Social Research, Department of Economics.
    4. Deng, Kent & O'Brien, Patrick, 2021. "The Kuznetsian paradigm for the study of modern economic history and the Great Divergence with appendices of literature review and statistical data," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 108563, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Bettina Mahlert, 2021. "Needs and Satisfiers: A Tool for Dealing with Perspectivity in Policy Analysis," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 33(6), pages 1455-1474, December.
    6. Paidipaty, Poornima & Ramos Pinto, Pedro, 2021. "Revisiting the “Great Levelling”: the limits of Piketty’s Capital and Ideology for understanding the rise of late 20th century inequality," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 110941, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

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