Political Institutions, Economic Liberty, and the Great Divergence
Gary W. Cox
I argue that Europe's political fragmentation interacted with her innovations—self-governing cities and national parliaments—to facilitate “economic liberty,” which in turn unleashed faster more inter-connected urban growth. Examining growth over the period 600–1800 ce throughout Eurasia, show inter-city correlations were positive significant only Western Europe after 1200 . Within Europe, greatest most fragmented parliamentary areas, individual became significantly tied to when their realms parliamentary, spillover effects (due competition between rulers) significant.
The Journal of Economic History