Alongside literacy, numeracy is a key pillar of education and progress. Basic arithmetic skills are in essence a requirement for modern-day life, while more sophisticated techniques are fundamental to any number of scientific and technological advances we nowadays take for granted.
In a new working paper, Danna, Iori and Mina consider the contribution of mathematics to Europe’s economic development. Specifically, they examine how the adoption of Hindu-Arabic numerals — the numbers 0 to 9 as we know them today — influenced growth in pre-modern Europe.
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