IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hai/wpaper/200703.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

From Rites to Rights: the Co-evolution of Political, Economic and Social Structures

Author

Listed:
  • Brooks Kaiser

    (Department of Economics, University of Hawaii at Manoa
    Department of Economics, Gettysburg College)

  • James Roumasset

    (Department of Economics, University of Hawaii at Manoa)

Abstract

It is the charge of economic history not only to explain the economic past, but to use it to enrich and develop economic theory (North, 1994). In paleoeconomics, theory plays the additional role of adding veracity of accounts based on sparse evidence through the demonstration of internal consistency. We synthesize pre-historical and historical evidence available from the settlement and modernization of the Hawaiian economy into a stylized picture of the co-evolution of production and governance structures called the governmental Kuznets curve. We explain the co-evolution with a theory of institutional change that includes the roles of resource scarcity and opportunities for internal and external economies of scale in the increasing intensification and specialization of production. These are facilitated first by a steeper and then by a flatter political organization.

Suggested Citation

  • Brooks Kaiser & James Roumasset, 2007. "From Rites to Rights: the Co-evolution of Political, Economic and Social Structures," Working Papers 200703, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:hai:wpaper:200703
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.economics.hawaii.edu/research/workingpapers/WP_07-3.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2007
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. North, Douglass C, 1994. "Economic Performance through Time," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(3), pages 359-368, June.
    2. John J. Wallis & Douglass North, 1986. "Measuring the Transaction Sector in the American Economy, 1870-1970," NBER Chapters, in: Long-Term Factors in American Economic Growth, pages 95-162, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nagase, Yoko & Uehara, Takuro, 2011. "Evolution of population-resource dynamics models," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 9-17.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ugur, Mehmet, 2010. "Institutions and economic performance: a review of the theory and evidence," MPRA Paper 25909, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Oct 2010.
    2. Zezza, Alberto & Llambi, Luis, 2002. "Meso-Economic Filters Along the Policy Chain: Understanding the Links Between Policy Reforms and Rural Poverty in Latin America," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 30(11), pages 1865-1884, November.
    3. Frolov, Daniil, 2019. "From transaction costs to transaction value: Overcoming the Coase-Williamson paradigm," MPRA Paper 95959, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Audra J. Bowlus & Zvi Eckstein, 2002. "Discrimination and Skill Differences in an Equilibrium Search Model," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 43(4), pages 1309-1345, November.
    5. Matthias Blum & Matthias Strebel, 2015. "Max Weber and the First World War: Protestant and Catholic living standards in Germany, 1915-1919," Economics Working Papers 15-04, Queen's Management School, Queen's University Belfast.
    6. Jackie Krafft & Evens Salies, 2008. "Why and how should innovative industries with high consumer switching costs be re-regulated?," Documents de Travail de l'OFCE 2008-04, Observatoire Francais des Conjonctures Economiques (OFCE).
    7. Engelhardt, Sebastian v. & Freytag, Andreas, 2013. "Institutions, culture, and open source," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 90-110.
    8. Czeglédi, Pál, 2009. "A tulajdonjogi biztonság szerepe a technológia elterjedésében [The role of property-law security in the spread of technology]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(9), pages 790-813.
    9. Adam P. Balcerzak, 2011. "Institutional integration in the European Union. Suggestion for measurement," Ekonomia i Prawo, Uniwersytet Mikolaja Kopernika, vol. 7(1), pages 17-34, December.
    10. Axel Dreher & Pierre-Guillaume Méon & Friedrich Schneider, 2014. "The devil is in the shadow: Do institutions affect income and productivity or only official income and official productivity?," Post-Print CEB, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles, vol. 158(1-2), pages 121-141, January.
    11. Chikán, Attila & Molnár, Boglárka & Szabó, Erika, 2018. "A nemzeti versenyképesség fogalma és támogató intézményi rendszere [The concept of national competitiveness and the institutional system to support it]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(12), pages 1205-1224.
    12. Marianne Rubinstein, 2001. "Gouvernement d’entreprise et innovation," Revue d'Économie Financière, Programme National Persée, vol. 63(3), pages 211-229.
    13. Andreas Freytag & Roy Thurik, 2010. "Entrepreneurship and its Determinants in a Cross-Country Setting," Springer Books, in: Andreas Freytag & Roy Thurik (ed.), Entrepreneurship and Culture, chapter 0, pages 157-170, Springer.
    14. Schmid, Andreas, 2007. "Incentive Compatibility and Efficiency in the contractual Insurer-Provider Relationship: Economic Theory and practical Implications: The Case of North Carolina," MPRA Paper 23311, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2008.
    15. Wandel, Jürgen, 2009. "Agroholdings and clusters in Kazakhstan's agro-food sector [Agroholdings und Clusters in Kasachstan’s Agrar- und Ernährungssektor]," IAMO Discussion Papers 126, Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO).
    16. Jacques Fontanel, 2000. "L’Etat, garant de l’intérêt général ou de certains intérêts particuliers," Post-Print hal-02880886, HAL.
    17. Josef Christl, 2006. "Regional currency arrangements: insights from Europe," International Economics and Economic Policy, Springer, vol. 3(3), pages 209-219, December.
    18. Mai, Nhat Chi, 2014. "Monetary transmission mechanism analysis in a small, open economy: the case of Vietnam," OSF Preprints ybc8p, Center for Open Science.
    19. Carlos Esteban Posada, 1998. "Los mercados de instituciones y las instituciones endogenas," Lecturas de Economía, Universidad de Antioquia, Departamento de Economía, issue 48, pages 149-168, Enero Jun.
    20. Engelbrecht, Hans-Jurgen, 1998. "A communication perspective on the international information and knowledge system," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 10(3), pages 359-367, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Paleoeconomics; governance; institutional change; Hawaiian economy; intensification; specialization;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D02 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Institutions: Design, Formation, Operations, and Impact
    • N0 - Economic History - - General
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • O43 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Institutions and Growth
    • Q2 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hai:wpaper:200703. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Web Technician (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/deuhius.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.