Where did and Where does Economic Develpment Come From?

This event will be moderated by Juan Francisco Jimeno
 
Nothing, absolutely nothing has changed the real lives of billions of real people more than “economic development”, that strange thing, process, miracle, discontinuity, emergence, transformation or whatever you like to call it that, apparently, started in the United Kingdom about 200, maybe 250, years ago. Maybe there never was a true discontinuity and what we have been witnessing during the last two centuries is nothing more than the logical continuation of processes and trends started thousands of years ago. Or, maybe and as many economists like to theorize, there was a “miracle” sometime in the middle of the XVIII century and something that was both unconceivable within and extraneous to the world before it forced itself upon the stage of human history. Be it as it may, there are no doubts that the pace at which human welfare has been improving since the middle of the XVIII century has no precedent in the history of humanity and there is also no doubt that its spreading around the planet has accelerated after WWII. So: what are the historical causes of economic development? What fuels it now? What stops or prevents it? Why did it take it so long to make it to China, India or Brazil? Why did it start where it started and Somalia has not experienced it yet? Will it continue?