Chris Chase-Dunn · eScholarship (California Digital Library) 2002 · historical quantitative comparative analysis · n=?

The Trajectory of the United States in the World-System: A Quantitative Reflection

Cited 3 times in the scientific literature.

Level 4 - case-series / case-control

Historical comparative quantitative analysis using secondary macroeconomic data (design analogy, non-clinical).

OpenAlex W2173658384 · record verified 2026-08-26

What was done

The authors used revised historical estimates of global gross domestic product (GDP), population, and GDP per capita from Angus Maddison (2001) to quantitatively re-examine the historical economic trajectory of the United States. They compared 20th-century U.S. economic hegemony against 17th-century Dutch and 19th-century British hegemonies and tracked the trajectories of competing challenger nations.

What was found

The abstract reports no numerical estimates, effect sizes, or specific quantitative results.

Why it matters

This work quantitatively contextualizes modern U.S. economic hegemony against previous historical global hegemonies to model patterns of long-term economic rivalry.

Limits

The abstract provides no empirical numbers or statistical results. The study relies entirely on secondary historical macroeconomic reconstructions, which carry substantial estimation uncertainty, and does not specify in the abstract which challenger states were assessed or the exact methodology used.

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