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On the Collapse of Historical Civilizations
Author(s) -
Good David H.,
Reuveny Rafael
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
american journal of agricultural economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.949
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1467-8276
pISSN - 0002-9092
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8276.2009.01312.x
Subject(s) - economics , renewable resource , natural resource , neoclassical economics , function (biology) , welfare , population , resource (disambiguation) , positive economics , population growth , social welfare , natural resource economics , sociology , renewable energy , political science , ecology , biology , law , market economy , computer science , demography , computer network , evolutionary biology
To explain the collapse of historical civilizations, scholars typically point to suboptimal behaviors including misunderstanding the natural environment, shortsightedness, or a lack of institutions. We examine the collapse of four historical societies with a model of endogenous population growth and renewable resources employing components of optimal resource management, economic growth theory, and the moral philosophy of social welfare function choice. We find that these collapses may have been socially optimal. Further, we show that the transient behavior of the system is more sensitive to assumptions than the equilibrium behavior and that focusing solely on equilibria may miss key insights.