Gregory Clark (economist)

Gregory Clark (born 19 September, 1957 in Bellshill, Scotland) is a professor of economics at the University of California, Davis.

Biography

Clark, whose grandfathers were migrants to Scotland from Ireland, earned his B.A. in economics and philosophy at King's College, Cambridge in 1979 and his Ph.D. at Harvard in 1985. He has also taught at Stanford and the University of Michigan.

Clark is now a professor of economics and department chair until 2013 at the University of California, Davis. His areas of research are long term economic growth, the wealth of nations, and the economic history of England and India. [ [http://www.econ.ucdavis.edu/faculty/gclark/index.html Gregory Clark - Professor of Economics - Welcome ] ]

A Farewell to Alms

Clark is most well known for his theory of economic history related to the change in behaviors that enabled the Industrial Revolution, discussed in his book, "A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World".

"A Farewell to Alms" (the book's title is a non-rhotic pun on Ernest Hemingway's novel, "A Farewell to Arms") discusses the divide between rich and poor nations that came about as a result of the Industrial Revolution in terms of the evolution of particular behaviors originating in Britain. Prior to 1790, Clark asserts, man faced a Malthusian trap: new technology enabled greater productivity and more food, but was quickly gobbled up by higher populations. In Britain, however, as disease continually killed off poorer members of society, their positions in society were taken over by the sons of the wealthy, who were less violent, more literate, and more productive. This process of "downward social mobility" eventually enabled Britain to attain a rate of productivity that allowed it to break out of the Malthusian trap.

Criticism

Critics of Clark's work point to comparable conditions in China that should have led to an Industrial Revolution there. However, Clark says his data show that the Qing dynasty in China were unfertile and so did not generate the downward social mobility that spread production-oriented values in England.

Critics also disagree that changes in human behavior are an appropriate model for understanding economic history, as opposed to changes in institutions. Scholars who have reviewed Clark's work also disagree as to what extent of the changes Clark chronicles may have been genetic in nature.

References

External links

* [http://www.econ.ucdavis.edu/faculty/gclark/index.html Gregory Clark's homepage]
* [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/07/science/07indu.html NY Times story on "A Farewell to Alms"]