Why Do People Do Research on Pre Modern History Important?

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If you don't have secure property rights and. end of story, that's being a negative some game it's very hard to escape. Low levels of well being material well being. And in this sense, I think the paper is not just about the emergence of states. It also helps understand why some states today are failing states why others are successful. A lot of research on economic institutions just highlights the quality of institutions. But in a large extent, I would say is not very successful in going to the root cause of better or worse institutions.

Since at least Adam Smith, the common wisdom has been that the transition from hunter-gathering to farming allowed the creation of the State. Farming, so went the theory, led to agricultural surplus, and that surplus is the prerequisite for taxation and a State. But economist Omer Moav of the University of Warwick and Reichman University argues that it wasn't farming but the farming of a particular kind of crop (but not others) that led to hierarchy and the State. Moav explains to EconTalk host Russ Roberts storability is the key dimension that allows for taxation and a State. The conversation includes a discussion of why it's important to understand the past and the challenges of confirming or refuting theories about history.