On the Early Holocene: Foraging to Early Agriculture
用博弈模型分析技术发展如何导致采集社会从合作转向农业，解释环境过度开发与粮食危机的出现，对理解人类早期经济转型有参考价值。
We consider a world in which the mode of food production, foraging or agriculture, is endogenous, and in which technology grows exogenously. Within a model of coalition formation, we allow individuals to form co-operative communities (bands) of foragers or farmers rationally. At the lowest levels of technology, equilibrium entails the grand coalition of foragers, a co-operative structure which avoids over-exploitation of the environment. But at a critical state of technology, the co-operative structure breaks down through an individually rational splintering of the band. At this stage, there can be an increase in work and through the over-exploitation of the environment, a food crisis. In the end, technological growth may lead to a one-way transition from foraging to agriculture. Copyright 2006 The Authors. Journal compilation Royal Economic Society 2006.