The Economic Development of Europe's Regions ─ A Quantitative History Since 1900

The book is the first quantitative description of Europe’s economic development at a regional level over the entire 20th century. Based on a new and comprehensive set of data, this book brings together a group of leading economic historians in order to describe and analyze the development of European regions, both for nation states and for Europe as a whole. This provides a new transnational perspective on Europe’s quantitative development, offering for the first time a systematic long-run analysis of national policies independently from the use of national statistical units.

The volume is distinctive in systematically going beyond the usual collection of national histories connected by some accounts of relations between nations. Instead, the book gives a panoramic view of economic development both below and above the national level. Second, the book aims at providing a comprehensive database at the level of modern NUTS-II regions for the period 1900-2010 in ten-year intervals. This will be invaluable for economic historians, economic geographers, development economists and those with an interest in economic growth. Finally, the book shows that the new transnational dimension of data allows for the analysis of national policies in a more thorough way than was ever possible before. The book therefore will be unrivalled and indispensable background reading for economists, historians and geographers interested in comparative economic development in the long-run.

Nikolaus Wolf is Professor of Economic History and Director of the Institute of Economic History, Humboldt University, Germany

Joan Ramon Roses is Associate Professor (Tenured (Prof. Titular)), Department of Economic History and Institutions, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain