Prehistoric shuttle dispersals in a Malthusian economy

Angus Chu

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: Early humans undertook multiple waves of migration out of Africa and back to the continent. We explore prehistoric human migration in a two-region Malthusian growth model. Whether migration occurs depends on the migration cost, relative population size, relative land supply and relative hunting-gathering productivity between regions. Suppose one region is initially uninhabited. Then, a lower migration cost leads to migration and a larger human population. Back migration occurs when hunting-gathering productivity and supply of natural resources in the foreign region decrease relative to the home region, which provides an economic rationale for the multi-directional "shuttle dispersal model" of prehistoric human migration out of and back to Africa.

Keywords: Prehistoric human migration; Malthusian growth theory (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O15 O44 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-evo, nep-gro, nep-his and nep-mig
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pra:mprapa:126606

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