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The Potato's Contribution to Population and Urbanization: Evidence from an Historical Experiment

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Nathan Nunn
Nancy Qian

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Abstract

We exploit regional variation in suitability for cultivating potatoes, together with time variation arising from their introduction to the Old World from the Americas, to estimate the impact of potatoes on Old World population and urbanization. Our results show that the introduction of the potato was responsible for a significant portion of the increase in population and urbanization observed during the 18th and 19th centuries.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 15157.

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Date of creation: Jul 2009
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:15157

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics
N1 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Growth and Fluctuations
N5 - Economic History - - Agriculture, Natural Resources, Environment and Extractive Industries
O13 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Agriculture; Natural Resources; Environment; Other Primary Products
O14 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Industrialization; Manufacturing and Service Industries; Choice of Technology

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This page was last updated on 2009-11-25.

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