Of Mice and Merchants: Trade and Growth in the Iron Age / Jan David Bakker, Stephan Maurer, Jörn-Steffen Pischke, Ferdinand Rauch.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bakker, Jan David.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Maurer, Stephan.

Pischke, Jörn-Steffen.

Rauch, Ferdinand.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w24825.

NBER working paper series no. w24825

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

Of Mice and Merchants

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2018.

Summary:

We study the causal connection between trade and development using one of the earliest massive trade expansions: the first systematic crossing of open seas in the Mediterranean during the time of the Phoenicians. We construct a measure of connectedness along the shores of the sea. This connectivity varies with the shape of the coast, the location of islands, and the distance to the opposing shore. We relate connectedness to local growth, which we measure using the presence of archaeological sites in an area. We find an association between better connected locations and archaeological sites during the Iron Age, at a time when sailors began to cross open water very routinely and on a big scale. We corroborate these findings at the level of the world.

Notes:

Print version record

July 2018.