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Intense Economic Growth in Economic History and Economic Theory

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Economic Miracles in the European Economies

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to present basic ideas, views, and interpretations of intensive modern economic growth in economic history and economics theory. Periods of accelerated economic growth in the contemporary dual system of the world economy are primarily associated with the processes of industrialization and development of the capitalist market economy in peripheral countries and the fast-paced innovativeness of industrial and post-industrial economies of developed countries. A review of the literature shows a large diversity of views of economic theoreticians on the possibilities, mechanisms, and effects of accelerating economic growth. Phenomena associated with spectacular high rate of economic growth are defined as economic miracles. The industrial revolution, technological progress, specialization, and concentration of manufacturing processes as well as the rapid accumulation of capital caused an increase in the productivity of production factors not seen earlier in the history. Industrialization was, therefore, a necessary condition for the occurrence of economic miracles on the path of the historical development of capitalism. A result of the literature investigation is a proposal of an economic miracles classification which could be used for the description and interpretation of each identified case.

Financial support from research project no. 2015/17/B/HS4/01000 supported by the National Science Centre in Poland is gratefully acknowledged.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Adapted from Gomułka (2016, pp. 21–23).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics, The Faculty of Economic Sciences and Management, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń, Poland

    Jerzy Boehlke

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  1. Jerzy Boehlke
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Correspondence to Jerzy Boehlke .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Econometrics and Statistics, The Faculty of Economic Sciences and Management, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń, Poland

    Magdalena Osińska

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Boehlke, J. (2019). Intense Economic Growth in Economic History and Economic Theory. In: Osińska, M. (eds) Economic Miracles in the European Economies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05606-3_2

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