Angus Maddison's Mission to Understand the World and Its History Through Numbers (In Memoriam) (Critical Essay‪)‬

In his fascinating concise autobiography (2) Angus Maddison defined himself as a "chiffrophile", a person seeking knowledge through the hard facts provided by statistical data. He was perfectly conscious that data are only very rough estimates of reality, but he was sure that they can give a great help to a better understanding of complex economic and historical phenomena. Moreover, he thought that the work on data is a cumulative process, on which you can build, a bridgehead which you yourself and other scholars can constantly expand, refine and consolidate, so that your work would not be vain. It would be the cornerstone on which a solid building gradually takes shape. However, his works were never "facts without theory". His analyses consisted of a complex and difficult fusion of facts, economic theory and history.