Population, technology and fragmentation: The European miracle revisited

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Lagerloef, Nils-Petter
• 署名单位: York University - Canada
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-3878
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2014.01.007
• 发表日期: 2014
• 页码: 87-105
• 关键词: fragmentation; Malthusian growth model; Europe; CHINA

摘要

The effects of political fragmentation on long-run development seem to have changed over the course of human history. Technological leaders used to be empires, but the Industrial Revolution started in the fragmented Europe. This paper sets up a model to help us think about this puzzle. There are two sets of mechanisms at play: a standard scale effect, which benefits unified regions, since technology is a non-rivalrous good: and several competition effects, both negative (like wasteful armies) and positive (incentives to invest in new technologies). We apply the model to analyze the preindustrial divergence between China and Europe. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.