1990s Mauritius has been labelled a miracle. This chapter outlines some of
those catastrophes, some of the miracles and many of those countries that
muddled along somewhere in between.
Growth in the world economy since 1950
Growth statistics enable us to understand the big stories in the contemporary
world economy: the ‘golden age’ of world economic growth after the 1950s;
the decline of Britain and later the US; the rise of Japan, then South Korea, then
China; the collapse of the USSR; and the (until very recently) ongoing stagna-
tion in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The world in 1950 and sixty years later
Table 2.1 provides two snapshots of major economies, in 1950 and 2010.
Japan’s rapid growth enabled it to close the gap with the developed world and
converge with Germany,France, the UK and the Netherlands by the early
1990s,before suffering twenty years of stagnant economic growth. In 1950 the
UK was the second richest economy in the sample; by the 1990s it had fallen
behind Italy,Germany, Japan and France before relatively rapid growth after
the 1990s saw it overtake the latter three by the mid-2000s.
The UK’s share of world industrial output fell from nearly a quarter in 1880
to only 3.5 per cent in 1998. The share of Western Europe was relatively stable
between 1880 and 1913 at around 30 per cent, declined to 17.7 per cent in 1953
then recovered to 28 per cent in 1998. North America, which experienced rapid
economic growth during both world wars, peaked in 1953 at 32 per cent,
declining to 25 per cent in 1998. After 1953 Japan’s share increased rapidly to
44 Sources of Growth in the Modern World Economy since 1950
Table 2.1 GDP in ten large economies, 1950 and 2010GDP per capita, 1990$ 1950 2010US 9,561 30,491
China 448 8,032
Japan 1,921 21,935
India 619 3,372
Germany 3,881 20,661
France 5,586 21,477
UK 6,939 23,727
Netherlands 5,996 24,303
Mexico 2,365 7,716
Former USSR 2,841 7,733Source:Data from the Maddison Project (http://ggdc.net/maddison/maddison-project/home.htm).