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Uneven Development in the Nineteenth Century: A Comparison of the Habsburg Empire and the United States

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2009

David F. Good
David F. Good
Affiliation:
Associate Professor of Economics at Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122.
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Abstract

Unlike most studies of uneven development before World War I, this paper uses the region (not the nation) as the unit of study. Weak market links with the national market partially explain persisting relative backwardness in the Habsburg Empire's eastern hinterland and in the American South. Even if product and factor markets had been perfectly integrated, institutional rigidities would have greatly retarded development. In the Empire, growth emerged in the west where serfdom was weakening and spread slowly as feudal institutions decayed. In America, capitalistic institutions promoted development in the North more thoroughly than did slavery and postbellum institutions in the South.

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Articles
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 46 , Issue 1 , March 1986 , pp. 137 - 151
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1986

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