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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Imitation Versus Innovation In An Aging Society: International Evidence Since 1870, James B. Ang
Imitation Versus Innovation In An Aging Society: International Evidence Since 1870, James B. Ang
James B Ang
The budgetary implications of an aging population in the OECD are often considered dire. This study argues that this need not be the case provided that older educated workers are more innovative than their younger counterparts and that the workers with tertiary education stay in the labor force until their 60s. In using a panel of 21 OECD countries over the period 1870–2009, this paper estimates the productivity growth effects of education for different age groups, through the channels of innovation and imitation. The results show that educated workers are highly innovative and that the propensity to innovate increases sharply …
Agricultural Transition And The Adoption Of Primitive Technology, James B. Ang
Agricultural Transition And The Adoption Of Primitive Technology, James B. Ang
James B Ang
This paper tests Jared Diamond's influential theory that an earlier transition from a hunter-gatherer society to agricultural production induces higher levels of technology adoption. Using a proxy for the geographic diffusion barriers of Neolithic technology and an index of biogeographic endowments to isolate the exogenous component of the timing of agricultural transition, the findings indicate that countries that experienced earlier transitions to agriculture were subsequently more capable of adopting new technologies in 1000 BC, 1 AD, and 1500 AD. These results lend strong support to Diamond's hypothesis.
What Drives The Historical Formation And Persistent Development Of Territorial States?, James B. Ang
What Drives The Historical Formation And Persistent Development Of Territorial States?, James B. Ang
James B Ang
The importance of the length of state history for understanding variations in income levels and growth rates across countries has received a lot of attention in the recent literature on long-run comparative development. The literature, however, is silent about its origins. This paper explores the determinants of statehood by considering the potential roles of an early transition to fully-fledged agricultural production, the adoption of state-of-the-art military innovations, and the opportunity for economic interaction with the regional economic leader. The results demonstrate that only the association between economic interaction and the rise and development of the state is statistically robust.