A Western Reversal Since the Neolithic? The Long-Run Impact of Early Agriculture

In
this paper we document a reversal of fortune within the Western agricultural
core, showing that regions which made early transition to Neolithic agriculture
are now poorer than regions that made the transition later. The finding
contrasts recent influential works emphasizing the beneficial role of early
transition. Using data from a large number of carbon-dated Neolithic sites
throughout the Western agricultural area, we determine approximate transition
dates for about 60 countries, 280 medium-sized regions and 1,400 small regions.
Our empirical analysis shows that there is a robust negative, reduced-form
relationship between years since transition to agriculture and contemporary
levels of income both across and within countries. Our results further indicate
that the reversal had started to emerge already before the era of European
colonization.