Uneven Centuries

Şevket Pamuk

Published by Princeton University Press 2018

Uneven Centuries

Economic Development of Turkey since 1820

Şevket Pamuk

Volume 93 in the series The Princeton Economic History of the Western World

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691184982

Overview
Contents

About this book

The first comprehensive history of the Turkish economy

The population and economy of the area within the present-day borders of Turkey has consistently been among the largest in the developing world, yet there has been no authoritative economic history of Turkey until now. In Uneven Centuries, Şevket Pamuk examines the economic growth and human development of Turkey over the past two hundred years.

Taking a comparative global perspective, Pamuk investigates Turkey’s economic history through four periods: the open economy during the nineteenth-century Ottoman era, the transition from empire to nation-state that spanned the two world wars and the Great Depression, the continued protectionism and import-substituting industrialization after World War II, and the neoliberal policies and the opening of the economy after 1980. Making use of indices of GDP per capita, trade, wages, health, and education, Pamuk argues that Turkey’s long-term economic trends cannot be explained only by immediate causes such as economic policies, rates of investment, productivity growth, and structural change.

Uneven Centuries offers a deeper analysis of the essential forces underlying Turkey’s development—its institutions and their evolution—to make better sense of the country’s unique history and to provide important insights into the patterns of growth in developing countries during the past two centuries.

Author information

Şevket Pamuk is professor of economics and economics history at Bogaziçi University in Istanbul. His books include A Monetary History of the Ottoman Empire and The Ottoman Empire and European Capitalism, 1820–1913.

Reviews

“Şevket Pamuk’s brilliant analysis helps move discussions of Turkey’s economic performance away from narrowly conceived short-term concerns and puts them in a historically informed, long-term, and comparative perspective. Pamuk breaks free from the ideological models that constrained the studies of economic development in Turkey and similar places for generations. To say that this book is seminal would be an understatement. With its extraordinarily rich and original information, brilliant insights, sophisticated analysis, and admirably clear prose, Uneven Centuries will set the standard for studying the economic history of the non-Western world for many years to come.”—Reşat Kasaba, author of A Moveable Empire

“From the late Ottoman period to the contemporary Republican era, Turkey’s economic fortunes have fluctuated widely. There is no one better to tell this rich story than Şevket Pamuk, the doyen of Turkish economic historians. Beyond providing a comprehensive statistical portrait of the last two centuries, Pamuk places Turkey’s experience in comparative perspective and links it to deeper institutional transformations. A major accomplishment, this book will be a standard reference for years to come.”—Dani Rodrik, author of Straight Talk on Trade

“In his groundbreaking economic history of Turkey, Şevket Pamuk analyzes the causes behind two centuries of uneven economic development—conflicting institutions that as they changed could simultaneously encourage growth but also hold it back.”—Philip T. Hoffman, author of Why Did Europe Conquer the World?

“The story of the economy and institutions of the Turkish Republic is often told as if there was a sharp rupture with the Ottoman era. The reality is much more complex, with many lines of continuity and the long shadow of the Ottoman past shaping many aspects of Turkish economic and political development. There is no better source that exposits these continuities and explains in what ways Turkey has changed and in what ways it has remained trapped by its past than this erudite, well-researched book. A must-read for anybody interested in Turkish economic history and the general institutional and economic problems of the developing world.”—Daron Acemoglu, coauthor of Why Nations Fail

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Tables and Figures Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Preface and Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
1. Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
2. Economic Growth and Human Development since 1820 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	22
3. Institutions and the Ottoman Past Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	55
4. Reforms and Deficits: Ottoman Response to European Challenges Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	90
5. Opening to Foreign Trade and Investment Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	112
6. Economic Development and Institutional Change, 1820–1914 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	134
7. From Empire to Nation- State Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	156
8. Economic Development and Institutional Change, 1914–1950 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	184
9. Inward- Oriented Development after World War II Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	204
10. Economic Development and Institutional Change, 1950–1980 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	222
11. Neoliberal Policies and Globalization Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	245
12. Economic Development and Institutional Change, 1980–2015 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	275
13. Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	303
References Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	319
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	341