The Physiological Foundation of the Wealth of Nations

Carl-Johan Lars Dalgaard; Holger Strulik

doi:10.1007/s10887-015-9112-5

The Physiological Foundation of the Wealth of Nations

Carl-Johan Lars Dalgaard, Holger Strulik

14 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In the present paper we advance a theory of pre-industrial growth where body size and population size are endogenously determined. Despite the fact that parents invest in both child quantity and productivity enhancing child quality, a take-off does not occur due to a key “physiological check”: if human body size rises, subsistence requirements will increase. This mechanism turns out to be instrumental in explaining why income stagnates near an endogenously determined subsistence boundary. Key predictions of the model are examined using data for ethnic groups as well as for sub-national regions.

Original language	English
Journal	Journal of Economic Growth
Volume	20
Issue number	1
Pages (from-to)	37-73
Number of pages	37
ISSN	1381-4338
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s10887-015-9112-5
Publication status	Published - Mar 2015

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10.1007/s10887-015-9112-5

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10887-015-9112-5

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title = "The Physiological Foundation of the Wealth of Nations",

abstract = "In the present paper we advance a theory of pre-industrial growth where body size and population size are endogenously determined. Despite the fact that parents invest in both child quantity and productivity enhancing child quality, a take-off does not occur due to a key “physiological check”: if human body size rises, subsistence requirements will increase. This mechanism turns out to be instrumental in explaining why income stagnates near an endogenously determined subsistence boundary. Key predictions of the model are examined using data for ethnic groups as well as for sub-national regions.",

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AB - In the present paper we advance a theory of pre-industrial growth where body size and population size are endogenously determined. Despite the fact that parents invest in both child quantity and productivity enhancing child quality, a take-off does not occur due to a key “physiological check”: if human body size rises, subsistence requirements will increase. This mechanism turns out to be instrumental in explaining why income stagnates near an endogenously determined subsistence boundary. Key predictions of the model are examined using data for ethnic groups as well as for sub-national regions.

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The Physiological Foundation of the Wealth of Nations

Abstract

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