Was the Wealth of Nations Determined in 1000 B.C.?

Diego Comin (), William Easterly () and Erick Gong ()
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Erick Gong: University of California, Berkeley - Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics

No 09-052, Harvard Business School Working Papers from Harvard Business School

Abstract: We assemble a dataset on technology adoption in 1000 BC, 0 AD, and 1500 AD for the predecessors to today's nation states. We find that this very old history of technology adoption is surprisingly significant for today's national development outcomes. Our strong and robust results are for 1500 AD determining per capita income today. We find technological persistence across long epochs: from 1000 BC to 0 AD, from 0 AD to 1500 AD, and from 1500 AD to the present. Although the data allow only some suggestive tests of rival hypotheses to explain long?run technological persistence, we find the evidence to be most consistent with a model of endogenous technology adoption where the cost of adopting new technologies declines sufficiently with the current level of adoption. The evidence is less consistent with a dominant role for population as predicted by the semi?endogenous growth models or for country-level factors like culture, genes or institutions.

Keywords: Technology adoption; technology history; economic development. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O3 N7 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev and nep-his
Date: 2008-09
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Related works:
Working Paper: Was the Wealth of Nations Determined in 1000 B.C.? (2006)
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