Assessing Elite Human Capital in Asia: Exploring the Historical Roots of the Great Divergence, 1000-1900

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Jörg Baten
• Subject Area: Economic and Social History
• Term: since 2026
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 578167940

This project engages with the Great Divergence debate through an innovative, long-term empirical approach, aiming to significantly advance our understanding of human capital formation and economic development—topics of great relevance today. Our first objective is to extend and refine existing measures of living standards through the complementary indicator real wages estimated, and with adult height and urbanization. A second objective is to analyze elite human capital as a driver of long-term divergence. Because traditional human capital measures are largely absent before the 18th century, we rely on a novel proxy, elite numeracy, operationalized through the share of rulers with a recorded birth year. This measure has been shown to reflect the numerical capacity of rulers and the surrounding elites. We apply this proxy across more than 30 polities in Asia and Europe to trace the development of elite human capital in the long run.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants