Olssony, Ola and Paik, Christopher (2013) A western reversal since the Neolithic? The long-run impact of early agriculture. Working Paper. Coventry, UK: Department of Economics, University of Warwick. CAGE Online Working Paper Series, Volume 2013 (Number 139).

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Abstract

While it is widely believed that regions which experienced a transition to Neolithic
agriculture early also become institutionally and economically more advanced, many
indicators suggest that within the Western agricultural core (including Europe, North
Africa, the Middle East, and Southwest Asia), communities that adopted agriculture
early in fact have weaker institutions and poorly functioning economies today. In the
current paper, we attempt to integrate both of these trends in a coherent historical
framework. Our main argument is that countries that made the transition early also
tended to develop autocratic societies with social inequality and pervasive rent seeking,
whereas later adopters were more likely to have egalitarian societies with stronger
private property rights. These different institutional trajectories implied a gradual
shift of dominance from the early civilizations towards regions in the periphery. We
document this relative reversal within the Western core by showing a robust negative
correlation between years since transition to agriculture and contemporary levels of
income and institutional development, on both the national and the regional level.
Our results further indicate that the reversal had become manifest already before the
era of European colonization.

Item Type:	Working or Discussion Paper (Working Paper)
Alternative Title:
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory S Agriculture > S Agriculture (General)
Divisions:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Economics
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Neolithic period -- Europe, Neolithic period -- Asia, Neolithic period -- Africa, Agriculture -- Economic aspects -- Europe, Elite (Social sciences)
Series Name:	CAGE Online Working Paper Series
Publisher:	Department of Economics, University of Warwick
Place of Publication:	Coventry, UK
Official Date:	2013
Volume:	Volume 2013
Number:	Number 139
Number of Pages:	66
Status:	Not Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published

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