Was the Wealth of Nations Determined in 1000 B.C.?
We assemble a dataset on technology adoption in 1000 B.C., 0 A.D., and 1500 A.D. for the predecessors to today's nation states. We find that this very old history of technology adoption is surprisingly significant for today's national development outcomes. Although our strongest results are for 1500 A.D., we find that even technology as old as 1000 BC matters in some plausible specifications.
Published Versions
Diego Comin & William Easterly & Erick Gong, 2010.
"Was the Wealth of Nations Determined in 1000 BC?,"
American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics,
American Economic Association, vol. 2(3), pages 65-97, July.
citation courtesy of 
More from NBER
In addition to working papers, the NBER disseminates affiliates’ latest findings through a range of free periodicals — the NBER Reporter, the NBER Digest, the Bulletin on Retirement and Disability, the Bulletin on Health, and the Bulletin on Entrepreneurship — as well as online conference reports, video lectures, and interviews.
