David F. Good

The Economic Lag of Central and Eastern Europe: Income Estimates for the Habsburg Successor States, 1870–1910

The lack of nineteenth-century national income figures for the small states of present-day Central and Eastern Europe hampers studies of long-term economic development in the region. This article fills the gap by using a proxy approach to estimate GDP per capita on the territories of the Habsburg successor states for the period 1870 to 1910. The results give added support for more optimistic interpretations of the regions performance under Habsburg rule. More importantly, they can be linked to national income figures for later years and used directly in comparisons of international income levels between 1870 and 1987.

The economic growth of Central and Eastern Europe in comparative perspective, 1870–1989

Recurring changes in the institutional and ideological structures of Central and Eastern Europe have made it difficult to quantify and interpret its long-term economic development. This article provides the foundations for a unified picture of economic growth in the region since 1870. We construct a consistent time series of GDP per capita for the present day states of Central and Eastern Europe over the period 1870–1989, and then draw on the literature of the ‘new’ growth theory in economics to assess their long-term economic performance in the wider European setting.