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This paper shows that merely the Malthusian mechanism cannot explain the pre-industrial stagnation of living standards.Technological improvement in luxury production, if faster than improvement in subsistence production, would have kept living standards growing.The Malthusian trap is essentially a puzzle of balanced growth between the luxury sector and the subsistence sector.The author argues that the balanced growth is caused by group selection in the form of biased migration.It is proved that a tiny bit of bias in migration can suppress a strong tendency of growth.The theory reexplains the Malthusian trap and the prosperity of ancient market economics such as Rome and Song.It also suggests a new set of triggering factors of modern economic growth.