2023 Best EI Article Award Announced!

"The long-run agglomeration effects of early agriculture in Europe"

The Editors of Economic Inquiry are pleased to congratulate the recipients of the 2023 Best Article Award!

• Andrew Dickens, Brock University
• Nils-Petter Lagerlöf, York University

We study the effects of an early introduction of agriculture (Neolithic Transition) on modern agglomeration, using a new dataset on carbon dated organic materials found at archeological sites in Northern Europe. We find a positive effect of early agriculture, in particular within countries, which contrasts with a negative or zero correlation found in studies using older data, covering a larger region that includes both Europe and the Middle East. We argue that this reflects a mix of positive long-run effects on urban agglomeration, and negative effects on state institutions, which show up to different degrees depending on context.

We invite you to check it out online here...

"The long-run agglomeration effects of early agriculture in Europe"