The economic origins of government
(2023)
Journal Article
Allen, R. C., Bertazzini, M. C., & Heldring, L. (2023). The economic origins of government. American Economic Review, 113(10), 2507-2545
We test between cooperative and extractive theories of the origins of government. We use river shifts in southern Iraq as a natural experiment, in a new archeological panel dataset. A shift away creates a local demand for a government to coordinate b... Read More about The economic origins of government.