Foundations of Contemporary Economics: Alexander Gerschenkron
Abstract
Alexander Gerschenkron was among the most influential twentieth-century scholars of economic history and economic development. His collection of essays, Economic Underdevelopment in Historical Perspective, occupies a key place in the global literature on economic history. Two of Gerschenkron's major ideas that influenced the evolution of development theory beyond its original European context are systematized here. First, the calculation of the growth rates of the Soviet Union, which posed a challenge to economists at the time. The miscalculations discovered about the Soviet economy are known today as the Gerschenkron effect. Second, some aspects of his central theory of economic underdevelopment are pointed out in relation to industrialization and catch-up processes.
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References
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