Evidence shows that it is the language group which influences these world-views. This distinction, important for economic performance, translates into two distinct types of 'transactions costs', namely those costs associated with the efficiency of exchange, and those associated with policing opportunistic behaviour by economic agents. These two aspects need to be kept distinct. To illustrate the relevance of this distinction, the author describes how material and cosmological beliefs have altered since the Stone Age in Eurasia. Another important distinction the author makes is that of extensive and intensive growth.
Extensive growth means population growth without marked rise in per capita incomes.
This was the essence of the Industrial Revolution, which opened up the prospect for humankind of unbounded intensive growth. For the great Eurasian civilizations there is evidence of Smithian intensive growth during certain periods of their history. Science and technology don't seem to be an important dividing line between the West and the Rest. Neither can they explain the rise of the West. The essential element missing in the various explanations is the role of cosmological beliefs.