Prehistoric shuttle dispersals in a Malthusian economy

Chu, Angus C. (2025): Prehistoric shuttle dispersals in a Malthusian economy.

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.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Prehistoric human migration; Malthusian growth theory
• Subjects: O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O1 - Economic Development > O15 - Human Resources ; Human Development ; Income Distribution ; Migration; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O4 - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity > O44 - Environment and Growth; Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q5 - Environmental Economics > Q56 - Environment and Development ; Environment and Trade ; Sustainability ; Environmental Accounts and Accounting ; Environmental Equity ; Population Growth

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