The Potato's Contribution to Population and Urbanization: Evidence From A Historical Experiment
利用旧大陆各地适宜种植马铃薯的程度差异以及马铃薯从美洲传入的时间变化，估计了马铃薯对18-19世纪旧大陆人口和城市化的影响，发现其贡献了约四分之一的人口和城市化增长。
We exploit regional variation in suitability for cultivating potatoes, together with time variation arising from their introduction to the Old World from the Americas, to estimate the impact of potatoes on Old World population and urbanization. Our results show that the introduction of the potato was responsible for a significant portion of the increase in population and urbanization observed during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. According to our most conservative estimates, the introduction of the potato accounts for approximately one-quarter of the growth in Old World population and urbanization between 1700 and 1900. Additional evidence from within-country comparisons of city populations and adult heights also confirms the cross-country findings.