Eric Chaney
Harvard University
Scientific revolution: Institutions and the intellectual rise of the western world
Venue
IBD Amphi
Îlot Bernard du Bois - Amphithéâtre
AMU - AMSE
5-9 boulevard Maurice Bourdet
13001 Marseille
Date(s)
Monday, October 16 2017| 2:30pm to 4:00pm
Contact(s)
Timothée Demont: timothee.demont[at]univ-amu.fr
Roberta Ziparo: rziparo[at]gmail.com
Abstract
This paper uses the union of the world's largest library collections to document the rise of scientific output in the West. Results suggest that the West had pulled ahead of the most advanced non-Western regions by the fourteenth century, casting doubt on hypotheses stressing the pivotal role of the Reformation of the Atlantic Trade in this human capital divergence. I hypothesize that the growth of scientific output in the West ultimately reflected medieval institutional developments and provide evidence in support of this claim.