Giffen Goods, the Survival Imperative, and the Irish Potato Culture

Davies, John

doi:10.1086/261945

Cited by 19 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Another similar paper is Davies () who models beef as a commodity that brings higher utility per calorie than potatoes . Here, the idea is to add a subsistence constraint to classical demand analysis to show the Giffen effect.…”

Section: Previous Literature On Historical Growthmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In other words, in both papers, all goods affect survival and substitution between goods is limited. 9 Another similar paper is Davies (1994) who models beef as a commodity that brings higher utility per calorie than potatoes. 10 Here, the idea is to add a subsistence constraint to classical demand analysis to show the Giffen effect.…”

Section: B Two-sector Economiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Entertaining Malthus: Bread, Circuses, and Economic Growth

et al. 2017

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Motivated by the basic adage that man does not live by bread alone, we offer a theory of historical economic growth and population dynamics where human beings need food to survive, but enjoy other things, too. Our model imposes a Malthusian constraint on food, but introduces a second good to the analysis that affects living standards without affecting population growth. We show that technological change does a good job explaining historical consumption patterns and population dynamics, including the Neolithic Revolution, the Industrial Revolution, and the Great Divergence. Our theory stands in contrast to models that assume a single composite good and a Malthusian constraint. These models generate negligible growth prior to the Industrial Revolution. However, recent revisions to historical data show that historical living standards—though obviously much lower than today's—varied over time and space much more than previously thought. These revisions include updates to Maddison's dataset, which served as the basis for many papers taking long‐run stagnation as a point of departure. This new evidence suggests that the assumption of long‐run stagnation is problematic. Our model shows that when we give theoretical accounting of these new observations the Industrial Revolution is much less puzzling. (JEL B10, I31, J1, N1, O30)

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Section: Previous Literature On Historical Growthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: B Two-sector Economiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Entertaining Malthus: Bread, Circuses, and Economic Growth

et al. 2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…This was made possible by a remarkable characteristic: potato is one of the very few foods that is high in calories, protein, minerals and vitamins (except for vitamins A and D). As such, it can function as the main source of individual nutrition over an extended period of time (Davies, 1994). In addition, potato productivity was generally good: it could produce more nutrients on less land than other crops (including wheat and corn).…”

Section: The Irish Potato Faminementioning

confidence: 99%

Agricultural policy in an uncertain world

Chavas

2011

European Review of Agricultural Economics

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This paper briefly reviews the current food situation and provides some historical perspectives on its evolution over time. It documents the important effects of agricultural productivity. It also evaluates the role of externalities, uncertainty and policy in the agricultural sector. The analysis stresses the joint role of uncertainty and externalities in the analysis of efficiency issues in the agricultural sector. Implications for farm management and agricultural policy are discussed.

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“…When strong enough (i.e., in the presence of extreme forms of specialisation in the least-cost diet), these negative income elasticities can contribute to generating`Gi¡en e¡ects'. An example is potato consumption during the 1845^48 famine in Ireland (Davies 1994).…”

Section: It Can Provide a Basis For Investigating The Links Between Fmentioning

confidence: 99%

The microeconomics of food security

Chavas

2000

Aus J Agri & Res Econ

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This article develops a dynamic microeconomic model of food security under uncertainty, with special focus on the relationships between food demand, nutrition and human survival. It investigates the in£uence of entitlements on malnutrition, hunger and starvation under uncertainty. It develops useful insights on the links between food security and a number of policy instruments commonly used in dealing with malnutrition and starvation.

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Giffen Goods, the Survival Imperative, and the Irish Potato Culture

Cited by 19 publications

References 17 publications

Entertaining Malthus: Bread, Circuses, and Economic Growth

Entertaining Malthus: Bread, Circuses, and Economic Growth

Agricultural policy in an uncertain world

The microeconomics of food security

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