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Of maize and men: the effect of a New World crop on population and economic growth in China

Author

Listed:
  • Shuo Chen

    (Fudan University)

  • James Kai-sing Kung

    (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology)

Abstract

We examine the question of whether China was trapped within a Malthusian regime at a time when Western Europe had all but emerged from it. By applying a difference-in-differences analysis to maize adoption in China from 1600 to 1910, we find that cultivation of this New World crop failed to raise per capita income. While maize accounted for a nearly 19 % increase in the Chinese population during 1776–1910, its effect on urbanization and real wages was not pronounced. Our results are robust to different sample selection procedures, to the control of variables pertinent to Malthusian “positive checks”, to different measures of economic growth and to data modifications. Our study thus provides rich empirical support to the claim that under the conditions in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century China, new agricultural technologies led to the Malthusian outcome of population growth without wage increases and urbanization.

Suggested Citation

  • Shuo Chen & James Kai-sing Kung, 2016. "Of maize and men: the effect of a New World crop on population and economic growth in China," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 71-99, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:kap:jecgro:v:21:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1007_s10887-016-9125-8
    DOI: 10.1007/s10887-016-9125-8
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Malthus; New World crops; Maize; Population density; Economic growth; China;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics
    • N5 - Economic History - - Agriculture, Natural Resources, Environment and Extractive Industries
    • O11 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development

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