Debin Ma
Associate Member Department of Economics, Professor of Economic History
Faculty of History
As an economic historian, my research interest centers on the long-run economic growth of China and East Asia. My Phd dissertation focused on the comparative paths of modernization of China and Japan through a case study of the production and export of silk during 1850-1936. Since then, the scope of my research extends to encompass growth, development and industrialization as well as political, legal and intellectual history, often placing Chinese developments in a comparative and global context. For the past two decades, I have actively engaged in the Great Divergence debate on why the Industrial Revolution occurred in England but not in China or elsewhere, one of the most important and fascinating questions in global history today.
