IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ozechr/v61y2021i3p273-289.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Why geography matters to the economic history of India

Author

Listed:
  • Tirthankar Roy

Abstract

That geography shapes long‐run economic change is almost an axiom in economic history, but there is neither adequate understanding nor much agreement about how this influence works. This article is an attempt to contextualise Indian economic history against what we now know of this influence. It is also an attempt to define the geographical condition of the South Asia region in a manner compatible with the purpose of economic history, which is to explain the deep roots of economic growth and inequality.

Suggested Citation

  • Tirthankar Roy, 2021. "Why geography matters to the economic history of India," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(3), pages 273-289, November.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:ozechr:v:61:y:2021:i:3:p:273-289
    DOI: 10.1111/aehr.12229
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/aehr.12229
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/aehr.12229?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Broadberry, Stephen & Custodis, Johann & Gupta, Bishnupriya, 2015. "India and the great divergence: An Anglo-Indian comparison of GDP per capita, 1600–1871," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 58-75.
    2. Dave Donaldson, 2018. "Railroads of the Raj: Estimating the Impact of Transportation Infrastructure," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(4-5), pages 899-934, April.
    3. Thorner, Daniel & Thorner, Alice, 1962. "Book Review- Land and Labour in India," Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Indian Society of Agricultural Economics, vol. 17(4), pages 1-6.
    4. N.A. Phelps, 2004. "Clusters, Dispersion and the Spaces in Between: For an Economic Geography of the Banal," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 41(5-6), pages 971-989, May.
    5. Studer,Roman, 2017. "The Great Divergence Reconsidered," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107679979, September.
    6. Amsden, Alice H, 1991. "Diffusion of Development: The Late-Industrializing Model and Greater East Asia," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 81(2), pages 282-286, May.
    7. Oshima, Harry T, 1986. "The Transition from an Agricultural to an Industrial Economy in East Asia," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 34(4), pages 783-809, July.
    8. Roy, Tirthankar, 2021. "Water, climate, and economy in India from 1880 to the present," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 109207, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    9. James Fenske, 2013. "Does Land Abundance Explain African Institutions?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 123(12), pages 1363-1390, December.
    10. Ravallion, Martin, 1987. "Trade and stabilization: Another look at British India's controversial foodgrain exports," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 354-370, October.
    11. Tirthankar Roy, 2014. "Geography or politics? Regional inequality in colonial India," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 18(3), pages 324-348.
    12. Robin Burgess & Dave Donaldson, 2010. "Can Openness Mitigate the Effects of Weather Shocks? Evidence from India's Famine Era," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(2), pages 449-453, May.
    13. Gareth Austin, 2008. "The 'reversal of fortune' thesis and the compression of history: Perspectives from African and comparative economic history," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(8), pages 996-1027.
    14. Roy, Tirthankar, 2014. "Geography or politics? Regional inequality in colonial India," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 88845, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ratnoo, Vigyan D., 2024. "Persistent effects of colonial land tenure institutions: Village-level evidence from India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Roy, Tirthankar, 2021. "Why geography matters to the economic history of India," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 120698, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    2. Fenske, James & Kala, Namrata & Wei, Jinlin, 2023. "Railways and cities in India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    3. Fredriksson, Per G. & Gupta, Satyendra Kumar, 2022. "Land productivity and colonization," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    4. Kasahara, Hiroyuki & Li, Bingjing, 2020. "Grain exports and the causes of China's Great Famine, 1959–1961: County-level evidence," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    5. Bensch, Gunther & Gotz, Gunnar & Peters, Jörg, 2020. "Effects of rural electrification on employment: A comment on Dinkelman (2011)," Ruhr Economic Papers 840, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    6. Ewout Frankema & Marlous van Waijenburg, 2011. "African Real Wages in Asian Perspective, 1880-1940," Working Papers 0002, Utrecht University, Centre for Global Economic History.
    7. Xiao Ke & Yuanke Yan, 2021. "Can proactive fiscal policy achieve the goal of “Beyond Keynesianism”?," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(2), pages 1078-1103, May.
    8. Jerven , Morten & Austin , Gareth & Green, Erik & Uche , Chibuike & Frankema , Ewout & Fourie , Johan & Inikori , Joseph & Moradi , Alexander & Hillbom , Ellen, 2012. "Moving Forward in African Economic History: Bridging the Gap Between Methods and Sources," African Economic History Working Paper 1/2012, African Economic History Network.
    9. Stelios Michalopoulos & Elias Papaioannou, 2020. "Historical Legacies and African Development," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 58(1), pages 53-128, March.
    10. Roy, Tirthankar, 2019. "State capacity and the economic history of colonial India," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 100723, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    11. Treb Allen & David Atkin, 2022. "Volatility and the Gains From Trade," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 90(5), pages 2053-2092, September.
    12. Stephan Dietrich & Valerio Giuffrida & Bruno Martorano & Georg Schmerzeck, 2022. "COVID‐19 policy responses, mobility, and food prices," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 104(2), pages 569-588, March.
    13. Morten Jerven, 2014. "A West African experiment: constructing a GDP series for colonial Ghana, 1891–1950," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 67(4), pages 964-992, November.
    14. Hutkova, Karolina, 2021. "West Indies technologies in the East Indies: imperial preference and sugar business in Bihar, 1800-1850s," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 110453, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    15. Kostadis J. Papaioannou, 2018. "The Horns of a Dilemma in Colonial Policies:Rice, Rubber and Living Standards in the Malay Peninsula," Working Papers 0122, European Historical Economics Society (EHES).
    16. Cherniwchan, Jevan & Moreno-Cruz, Juan, 2019. "Maize and precolonial Africa," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 137-150.
    17. Eugenia Go, 2020. "Trade implications of transport cost in the Philippines," Economics PhD Theses 0320, Department of Economics, University of Sussex Business School.
    18. Alvaredo, Facundo & Bergeron, Augustin & Cassan, Guilhem, 2017. "Income concentration in British India, 1885–1946," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 459-469.
    19. Marta Marson & Donatella Saccone & Elena Vallino, 2023. "Total trade, cereals trade and undernourishment: new empirical evidence for developing countries," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 159(2), pages 299-332, May.
    20. Margherita Bottero & Bjorn Wallace, 2013. "Is There a Long-Term Effect of Africa's Slave Trades?," Quaderni di storia economica (Economic History Working Papers) 30, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:ozechr:v:61:y:2021:i:3:p:273-289. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/oznzsea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.