Barriers and the Transition to Modern Growth∗

This paper argues that barriers affect both the beginning date and the subsequent pace of modern growth, and taking into account this fact enriches our knowledge of cross-country income differences. The model matches the observed inverted U-shape of cross-country income differences, which implies that a substantial fraction of current income differences is transitional. Hence, the model requires smaller barriers to account for current income differences relative to models that focus only on steady states. Empirically, I find that differences in the beginning dates of modern growth explain large differences in incomes. JEL Classification: D58, O11, O14, O42