Table 10.
Additional Robustness Checks
| (1) | (2) | (3) | (4) | (5) | (6) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| OLS | OLS | OLS | OLS | OLS | OLS | |
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| Full Sample | Full Sample | Income Sample | Income Sample | Income Sample | Income Sample | |
|
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| Dependent Variable is: | ||||||
| Log Population Density in 1500 CE | Log Income per Capita in 1500 CE | Log Population Density in 1500 CE | ||||
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|
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| Log Years since Neolithic Transition | 0.828*** (0.208) | 0.877*** (0.214) | 0.117 (0.221) | 0.103 (0.214) | 1.498** (0.546) | 1.478** (0.556) |
| Log Land Productivity | 0.559*** (0.048) | 0.545*** (0.063) | 0.036 (0.032) | 0.047 (0.037) | 0.596*** (0.123) | 0.691*** (0.122) |
| Log Absolute Latitude | −0.400*** (0.108) | −0.301** (0.129) | −0.020 (0.110) | 0.028 (0.247) | −0.354 (0.392) | 0.668 (0.783) |
| Mean Distance to Nearest Coast or River | −0.403*** (0.152) | −0.388*** (0.144) | 0.175 (0.286) | 0.202 (0.309) | 0.394 (0.994) | 0.594 (0.844) |
| Percentage of Land within 100 km of Coast or River | 0.870*** (0.272) | 0.837*** (0.280) | 0.160 (0.153) | 0.245 (0.208) | 1.766*** (0.511) | 2.491*** (0.754) |
| Log Distance to Frontier | −0.186*** (0.035) | −0.191*** (0.036) | −0.005 (0.011) | −0.001 (0.013) | −0.130* (0.066) | −0.108* (0.055) |
| Small Island Dummy | 0.067 (0.582) | 0.086 (0.626) | −0.118 (0.216) | −0.046 (0.198) | 1.962** (0.709) | 2.720*** (0.699) |
| Landlocked Dummy | 0.131 (0.209) | 0.119 (0.203) | 0.056 (0.084) | 0.024 (0.101) | 1.490*** (0.293) | 1.269*** (0.282) |
| Percentage of Land in Temperate Zones | −0.196 (0.513) | −0.192 (0.180) | −1.624* (0.917) | |||
| Percentage of Land in (Sub)Tropical Zones | 0.269 (0.307) | −0.025 (0.308) | 1.153 (1.288) | |||
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| Continent Dummies | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Observations | 147 | 147 | 31 | 31 | 31 | 31 |
| R-squared | 0.76 | 0.76 | 0.67 | 0.67 | 0.94 | 0.96 |
Summary – This table demonstrates that the relatively small effects of land productivity and the level of technological advancement, as proxied by the timing of the Neolithic Revolution, on income per capita in the year 1500 CE, but their significantly larger effects on population density in the same time period, remain robust under additional controls for technology diffusion and climatic factors.
Notes – (i) log land productivity is the first principal component of the log of the percentage of arable land and the log of an agricultural suitability index; (ii) a single continent dummy is used to represent the Americas, which is natural given the historical period examined; (iii) robust standard error estimates are reported in parentheses; (iv) *** denotes statistical significance at the 1 percent level, ** at the 5 percent level, and * at the 10 percent level, all for two-sided hypothesis tests.