Book contents
- The Economics of the Long Period
- The Economics of the Long Period
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Introduction
- Part I The Long Period
- Part II Unified Growth Theory
- Part III Unified Growth Theory
- 7 Economic Growth and Education
- 8 The Birth of Institutions
- 9 Lifestyles and the Natural Environment
- Conclusion: Continuity and Discontinuity in History
- References
- Index
9 - Lifestyles and the Natural Environment
from Part III - Unified Growth Theory
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 August 2022
- The Economics of the Long Period
- The Economics of the Long Period
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Introduction
- Part I The Long Period
- Part II Unified Growth Theory
- Part III Unified Growth Theory
- 7 Economic Growth and Education
- 8 The Birth of Institutions
- 9 Lifestyles and the Natural Environment
- Conclusion: Continuity and Discontinuity in History
- References
- Index
Summary
This chapter develops a microfounded model of institutional changes and uses it to examine the joint production of institutions and economic output. In that model, agents must decide to participate in the political life of the city, participation whose level affects the level of the quality of institutions, as well as the possibilities of long-run economic expansion. It is shown that there exists a critical threshold for the quality of institutions below which agents do not participate to the political life, and above which they do participate. It is also shown that the presence of political participation does not suffice to bring immediate economic take-off: several generations of citizens with positive political participation are needed to achieve economic take-off.
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- The Economics of the Long Period , pp. 204 - 223Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022