This is a review article by Andrew Sharpe from the Centre for the Study of Living Standards of Angus Maddison's path-breaking new book, The World Economy: A Millennial Perspective. The article summarizes Maddison's key findings in a number of areas, with particular emphasis on his estimates of...

Demographic projections are generally considered as more robust than all other kinds of socio-economic forecasts. But doubts are sometimes cast on their relevance, especially when strong revisions of previous projections are proposed, as done by INSEE in 2006. The purpose of this paper is to...