THE POTATO'S CONTRIBUTION TO POPULATION AND URBANIZATION: EVIDENCE FROM A HISTORICAL EXPERIMENT

被引:554
作者
Nunn, Nathan [1 ]
Qian, Nancy
机构
[1] Harvard Univ, Cambridge, MA 02138 USA
关键词
STRUCTURAL-CHANGE; GROWTH; FOOD; DISEASE; EUROPE;
D O I
10.1093/qje/qjr009
中图分类号
F [经济];
学科分类号
02 ;
摘要
We exploit regional variation in suitability for cultivating potatoes, together with time variation arising from their introduction to the Old World from the Americas, to estimate the impact of potatoes on Old World population and urbanization. Our results show that the introduction of the potato was responsible for a significant portion of the increase in population and urbanization observed during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. According to our most conservative estimates, the introduction of the potato accounts for approximately one-quarter of the growth in Old World population and urbanization between 1700 and 1900. Additional evidence from within-country comparisons of city populations and adult heights also confirms the cross-country findings.
引用
收藏
页码:593 / 650
页数:58
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