State history and economic development: evidence from six millennia

Borcan, Oana, Olsson, Ola and Putterman, Louis (2018) State history and economic development: evidence from six millennia. Journal of Economic Growth, 23 (1). pp. 1-40. ISSN 1381-4338

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Abstract

The presence of a state is one of the most reliable historical predictors of social and economic development. In this article, we complete the coding of an extant indicator of state presence from 3500 BCE forward for almost all but the smallest countries of the world today. We outline a theoretical framework where accumulated state experience increases aggregate productivity in individual countries but where newer or relatively inexperienced states can reach a higher productivity maximum by learning from the experience of older states. The predicted pattern of comparative development is tested in an empirical analysis where we introduce our extended state history variable. Our key finding is that the current level of economic development across countries has a hump-shaped relationship with accumulated state history.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	state history,comparative development,institutions,deep roots,sdg 8 - decent work and economic growth ,/dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/decent_work_and_economic_growth
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Economics
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Centres > Centre for Behavioural and Experimental Social Sciences Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Applied Econometrics And Finance Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Behavioural Economics Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Behavioural and Experimental Development Economics
Depositing User:	Pure Connector
Date Deposited:	24 Oct 2017 05:09
Last Modified:	12 Jun 2023 08:32
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/65218
DOI:	10.1007/s10887-017-9152-0

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