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The Physiological Foundations of the Wealth of Nations

Author Info

Listed author(s):
  • Carl-Johan Dalgaard

    (Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen)

  • Holger Strulik

    (University of Hannover)

Abstract

Evidence from economics, anthropology and biology testifies to a fundamental trade-off between the number of offspring (quantity) and amount of nutrition per child (quality). This leads to a theory of pre-industrial growth where body size as well as population size is endogenous. But when productive quality investments are undertaken the historical constancy of income per capita seems puzzling. Why didn't episodes of rising income instigate a virtuous circle of rising body size and productivity? To address this question we propose that societies are subject to a “physiological check”: if human body size rises, metabolic needs - our conceptualization of “subsistence requirements” - rise. This mechanism turns out to be instrumental in explaining why income growth does not take hold and societies remain near an endogenously determined subsistence boundary. When we use the theory to shed light on pre-industrial cross-country income differences we find that 60-70% of the income differences in 1500 can plausibly be accounted for by variations in subsistence requirements.

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Paper provided by University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics in its series Discussion Papers with number 10-05.

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Length: 39 pages
Date of creation: Jan 2010
Handle: RePEc:kud:kuiedp:1005
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Keywords: Malthusian stagnation; Subsistence; Nutrition; Body size; Population growth;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
  • O11 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
  • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
  • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth

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As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
  1. Physiology and Malthus
    by Economic Logician in Economic Logic on 2011-11-10 17:08:00
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