Covering 2000 years of history, The Contours of the World Economy seeks to identify the factors which explain how and why some parts of the world have grown rich and others have lagged behind. It covers the development of macroeconomic tools of analysis from the 17th century to the present. It also accounts for the future of the world economy. Professor Maddison combines both the close quantitative analysis with a more qualitative approach that takes into account the complexity of the forces at work.