The Origin of the State: Land Productivity or Appropriability?

• 成果类型: Article; Early Access
• 署名作者: Mayshar, Joram; Moav, Omer; Pascali, Luigi
• 署名单位: Hebrew University of Jerusalem; University of Warwick; Reichman University; Pompeu Fabra University; Barcelona School of Economics
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-3808
• DOI: 10.1086/718372
• 发表日期: 2022
• 关键词: Geography; institutions; agriculture; biogeography; INEQUALITY; countries; capacity; storage; TRADE; rich

摘要

The conventional theory about the origin of the state is that the adoption of farming increased land productivity, which led to the production of food surplus. This surplus was a prerequisite for the emergence of tax-levying elites and, eventually, states. We challenge this theory and propose that hierarchy arose as a result of the shift to dependence on appropriable cereal grains. Our empirical investigation, utilizing multiple data sets spanning several millennia, demonstrates a causal effect of the cultivation of cereals on hierarchy, without finding a similar effect for land productivity. We further support our claims with several case studies.