Geography, Biogeography and Why Some Countries are Rich and Others Poor
Sammanfattning
The most important event in human economic history before the Industrial Revolution was the
Neolithic transition from a nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle to sedentary agriculture, beginning about
10,000 years ago. The transition made possible the human population explosion, the rise of non-foodproducing specialists, and the acceleration of technological progress that led eventually to the
Industrial Revolution. But the transition occurred at different times in different regions of the world,
with big consequences for the present-day economic conditions of populations indigenous to each
region. In this paper we show that differences in biogeographic initial conditions and in geography
largely account for the different timings of the Neolithic transition, and thereby ultimately help
account for the 100-fold differences among the prosperity of nations today. The effects of
biogeography and geography on the wealth of nations are partly mediated by the quality of presentday institutions, but are also partly independent of institutional quality.
Universitet
Göteborg University. School of Business, Economics and Law
Samlingar
Fil(er)
Datum
2004Författare
Olsson, Ola
Hibbs, Jr., Douglas A.
Nyckelord
geography; biogeography; institutions; economic growth; Neolithic transition;agriculture; development
Publikationstyp
Report
ISSN
1403-2465
Serie/rapportnr.
Working Papers in Economics, nr 105
Språk
en