时间：11月23日，15：00
地点：山东大学知新楼B423
主题：The Malthusian Quagmire: Maize and Population Growth in China, 1500-1900
演讲者：陈硕，2011年获得香港科技大学博士学位，目前为香港科技大学博士后。已发表论文于American Political Science Review，《经济学季刊》与《世界经济》。
摘要：We examine the effect of the introduction of maize—a New World crop—on population density in China, an important part of the Old World, in the 1500-1900 period. By exploiting the regional variation in the diffusion of maize, measured by the distance to the nearest point of initial adoption, and taking account of climate variations, we find that one decade of maize planting resulted in a 3.3% increase in population, or an overall nearly 23% for the 1500-1900 period. This result is robust to the inclusion of a number of controls and exclusion restriction tests. Unlike the introduction of the potato in Europe, however, the relationship between maize planting and urbanization is found to be negative. These findings corroborate narratives of a stagnating Chinese economy and China’s failure to industrialize at a time when Europe was experiencing sustained growth in per capita income, thereby enabling its people to escape from the Malthusian trap.
