The Potato’s Contribution to Population and Urbanization: Evidence from an Historical Experiment

In this paper regional variation in suitability for cultivating potatoes, together with time variation arising from their introduction to the Old World from the Americas is being exploited, to estimate the impact of potatoes on Old World population and urbanization. Their results show that the introduction of the potato was responsible for a significant portion of the increase in population and urbanization observed during the 18th and19th centuries. [Working Paper No. 234]