nep-evo 2015-01-09 papers

on Evolutionary Economics

Issue of 2015‒01‒09
one paper chosen by
Matthew Baker
City University of New York

Agricultural Transition and the Adoption of Primitive Technology By James B. ANG

Agricultural Transition and the Adoption of Primitive Technology

By:	James B. ANG (Division of Economics, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological Univer- sity. Address: 14 Nanyang Drive, Singapore, 637332.)
Abstract:	This paper tests Jared Diamond’s influential theory that an earlier transition from a hunter-gatherer society to agricultural production induces higher levels of technology adoption. Using a proxy for the geographic diffusion barriers of Neolithic technology and an index of biogeographic endowments to isolate the exogenous component of the timing of agricultural transition, the findings indicate that countries that experienced earlier transitions to agriculture were subsequently more capable of adopting new technologies in 1000 BC, 1 AD and 1500 AD. These results lend strong support to Diamond’s hypothesis.
Keywords:	technology adoption; agricultural transition; early economic development
JEL:	O30 O40
Date:	2014–12
URL:	http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nan:wpaper:1412&r=evo

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