Physiological Constraints and Comparative Economic Development

Carl-Johan Dalgaard and Holger Strulik

No 13119, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: It is a well known fact that economic development and distance to the equator are positively correlated variables in the world today. It is perhaps less well known that as recently as 1500 C.E. it was the other way around. The present paper provides a theory of why the “latitude gradient†seemingly changed sign in the course of the last half millennium. In particular, we develop a dynamic model of economic and physiological development in which households decide upon the number and nutrition of their offspring. In this setting we demonstrate that relatively high metabolic costs of fertility, which may have emerged due to positive selection towards greater cold tolerance in locations away from the equator, would work to stifle economic development during pre-industrial times, yet allow for an early onset of sustained growth. As a result, the theory suggests a reversal of fortune whereby economic activity gradually shifts away from the equator in the process of long-term economic development.

Date: 2018-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-evo and nep-gro
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://cepr.org/publications/DP13119 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Physiological Constraints and Comparative Economic Development (2017)
Working Paper: Physiological constraints and comparative economic development (2017)
Working Paper: Physiological Constraints and Comparative Economic Development (2016)
Working Paper: Physiological Constraints and Comparative Economic Development (2014)
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:cpr:ceprdp:13119

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
https://cepr.org/publications/DP13119

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research 33 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CEPR ().