The Global Economy in the 1990s A Long-Run Perspective

The 1990s were an extraordinary, contradictory, fascinating period of economic development, one evoking numerous historical parallels. But the 1990s are far from being well understood and their meaning for the future remains open to debate. In this volume, world-class economic historians analyze the growth of the world economy, globalization and its implications for domestic and international policy, the sources and sustainability of productivity growth in the USA, the causes of sluggish growth in Europe and Japan, comparisons of the Information Technologies revolution with previous innovation waves, the bubble and burst in asset prices and their impacts on the real economy, the effects of trade and factor mobility on the global distribution of income, and the changes in the welfare state, regulation, and macro-policy making. Leading scholars place the 1990s in a fuller long-run global context, offering insights into what lies ahead for the world economy in the twenty-first century.

1. Understanding the 1990s: the long-run perspective Paul Rhode and Gianni Toniolo; 2. The world economy in the 1990s: a long-run perspective Nicholas Crafts; 3. Managing the world economy in the 1990s Barry Eichengreen; 4. Europe: a continent in decline? Riccardo Faini; 5. Technical change and US economic growth: the interwar period and the 1990s Alexander J. Field; 6. GPTs: then and now Peter L. Rousseau; 7. Productivity growth and the American labor market: the 1990s in historical perspective Gavin Wright; 8. The 1920s and the 1990s in mutual reflection Robert J. Gordon; 9. Bubbles and bursts: the 1990s in the mirror of the 1920s Eugene N. White; 10. The 1990s as a postwar decade Peter Temin; 11. What is happening to the Welfare State? Peter H. Lindert; 12. The American economic policy environment of the 1990s: origins, consequences, and legacies Michael A. Bernstein; Bibliography.

Some of the most eminent economic historians of our times place the 1990s in their historical context in this thought-provoking volume. They address key issues in this fascinating and contradictory period of economic development, helping us to understand what lies ahead for the world economy in the twenty-first century.

Paul W. Rhode is the Zachary Taylor Smith Professor at the Economics Department of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Gianni Toniolo is Professor of Economic History at the University of Rome 'Tor Vergata' and Research Professor of Economics at Duke University.