Calculating China’s Historical Economic Aggregate: A GDP-centered Overview

Abstract

Since the 1990s, thanks to the concerted efforts of domestic and international scholars, the research on China’s historical GDP that began in the 1930s has received widespread attention, and is becoming a widely discussed issue at the forefront of research on world economic history. At the same time, several scholars at home and abroad have also voiced a call for more theoretical and empirical reflection within this line of research. Diversification of methods, systematic reconstruction of historical data, and international comparisons represent three emerging trends in future research on this subject. By encouraging and leading these trends, Chinese scholars can assume a greater role in international research on economic history.