TY - JOUR
T1 - The Origin of the State
T2 - Land Productivity or Appropriability?
AU - Mayshar, Joram
AU - Moav, Omer
AU - Pascali, Luigi
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The University of Chicago. All rights reserved.
PY - 2022/4
Y1 - 2022/4
N2 - The conventional theory about the origin of the state is that the adoption of farming increased land productivity, which led to the production of food surplus. This surplus was a prerequisite for the emergence of tax-levying elites and, eventually, states. We challenge this theory and propose that hierarchy arose as a result of the shift to dependence on appropriable cereal grains. Our empirical investigation, utilizing multiple data sets spanning several millennia, demonstrates a causal effect of the cultivation of cereals on hierarchy, without finding a similar effect for land productivity. We further support our claims with several case studies.
AB - The conventional theory about the origin of the state is that the adoption of farming increased land productivity, which led to the production of food surplus. This surplus was a prerequisite for the emergence of tax-levying elites and, eventually, states. We challenge this theory and propose that hierarchy arose as a result of the shift to dependence on appropriable cereal grains. Our empirical investigation, utilizing multiple data sets spanning several millennia, demonstrates a causal effect of the cultivation of cereals on hierarchy, without finding a similar effect for land productivity. We further support our claims with several case studies.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85125872569&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1086/718372
DO - 10.1086/718372
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AN - SCOPUS:85125872569
SN - 0022-3808
VL - 130
SP - 1091
EP - 1144
JO - Journal of Political Economy
JF - Journal of Political Economy
IS - 4
ER -
