On the Early Holocene: Foraging to Early Agriculture

Nicolas Marceau and Gordon Myers

Economic Journal, 2006, vol. 116, issue 513, 751-772

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 form co-operative communities (bands) of foragers or farmers rationally. At the lowest levels of technology, equilibrium entails the grand coalition of foragers, a co-operative structure which avoids over-exploitation of the environment. But at a critical state of technology, the co-operative 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. Copyright 2006 The Authors. Journal compilation Royal Economic Society 2006.

Date: 2006
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