What's the Difference Between Roots and Tubers?

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The relative productivity of grain versus tubers is important. If if you can grow a lot more grain relative to cassava or potatoes, even though it's going to get taxed, it's still worth it. And indeed, our theoretical model has farmers who could choose between roots and tubers or cereals but the productivity difference is what matters so cereals also in the data in our model are more productive than roots and tuber.

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.