On the Early Holocene: Foraging to Early Agriculture

Nicolas Marceau and Gordon Myers

Cahiers de recherche from CIRPEE

Abstract: We consider a world in which the mode of food production, foraging or agriculture, is endogenous, and in which technology grows exogenously. Within a model of coalition formation, we allow individuals to rationally form cooperative communities (bands) of foragers or farmers. At the lowest levels of technology, equilibrium entails the grand coalition of foragers, a cooperative structure which avoids over-exploitation of the environment. But at a critical state of technology, the cooperative structure breaks down through an individually rational splintering of the band. At this stage, there can be an increase in work and through the over-exploitation of the environment, a food crisis. In the end, technological growth may lead to a one-way transition from foraging to agriculture.

Keywords: Foraging; Agriculture; Transition; Coalition Formation; Cooperation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N50 O13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2005
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-cbe and nep-hpe
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.cirpee.org/fileadmin/documents/Cahiers_2005/CIRPEE05-02.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: On the Early Holocene: Foraging to Early Agriculture (2006)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:lvl:lacicr:0502

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Cahiers de recherche from CIRPEE Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Manuel Paradis ().