Population Diversity, Division of Labor and the Emergence of Trade and State

Depetris-Chauvin, Emilio and Özak, Ömer (2015): Population Diversity, Division of Labor and the Emergence of Trade and State.

Abstract

This research explores the emergence and prevalence of economic specialization and trade in pre-modern societies. It advances the hypothesis, and establishes empirically that population diversity had a positive causal effect on economic specialization and trade. Based on a novel ethnic level dataset combining geocoded ethnographic and genetic data, this research exploits the exogenous variation in population diversity generated by the ``Out-of-Africa'' migration of anatomically modern humans to causally establish the positive effect of population diversity on economic specialization and the emergence of trade-related institutions, which, in turn, facilitated the historical formation of states. Additionally, it provides suggestive evidence that regions historically inhabited by pre-modern societies with high levels of economic specialization have a larger occupational heterogeneity and are more developed today.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Economic Specialization, Division of Labor, Trade, State Formation, Population Diversity, Economic Development, Population Heterogeneity, Genetic Diversity, Diversity, Emergence of State, Persistence, Out of Africa
• Subjects: D - Microeconomics > D7 - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making > D74 - Conflict ; Conflict Resolution ; Alliances ; Revolutions; F - International Economics > F1 - Trade; N - Economic History > N0 - General; N - Economic History > N4 - Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O1 - Economic Development; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O4 - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity; Z - Other Special Topics > Z1 - Cultural Economics ; Economic Sociology ; Economic Anthropology > Z10 - General

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