Publicação

The great escape? The contribution of the Empire to Portugal’s economic growth, 1500-1800

Detalhes bibliográficos
Resumo:	Newly assembled macroeconomic statistics for early modern Portugal reveal one of Europe’s most vigorous colonial traders and at the same time one of its least successful growth records. Using an estimated model in the spirit of Allen (2009) we conclude that intercontinental trade had a substantial and increasingly positive impact on economic growth. In the heyday of colonial expansion, eliminating the economic links to empire would have reduced Portugal’s per capita income by roughly a fifth. While the empire helped the domestic economy it was not sufficient to annul the tendency towards decline in relation to Europe’s advanced core which set in from the 17th century onwards. We conclude that the explanation for Portugal’s long-term backwardness must be sought primarily in domestic conditions.
Autores principais:	Costa, Leonor Freire
Outros Autores:	Palma, Nuno; Reis, Jaime
Assunto:	The European Little Divergence Early Modern Economic Growth Economics of Empires
Ano:	2013
País:	Portugal
Tipo de documento:	working paper
Tipo de acesso:	acesso aberto
Instituição associada:	Universidade de Lisboa
Idioma:	inglês
Origem:	Repositório da Universidade de Lisboa

Descrição
Resumo:	Newly assembled macroeconomic statistics for early modern Portugal reveal one of Europe’s most vigorous colonial traders and at the same time one of its least successful growth records. Using an estimated model in the spirit of Allen (2009) we conclude that intercontinental trade had a substantial and increasingly positive impact on economic growth. In the heyday of colonial expansion, eliminating the economic links to empire would have reduced Portugal’s per capita income by roughly a fifth. While the empire helped the domestic economy it was not sufficient to annul the tendency towards decline in relation to Europe’s advanced core which set in from the 17th century onwards. We conclude that the explanation for Portugal’s long-term backwardness must be sought primarily in domestic conditions.