| 81. |
- Olsson, Ola, 1971
(författare)
-
Resource Conflict in Vulnerable Environments: Three Models Applied to Darfur
- 2008
-
Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- A recurring argument in the global debate is that climate deteriora- tion is likely to make social conflicts over dwindling natural resources more common in the future. In this paper, we present a modelling framework featuring three potential mechanisms for how the alloca- tion and dynamics of scarce renewable resources like land might cause social conflict in vulnerable environments. The rst model shows how decreasing resources make cooperative trade between two groups col- lapse. The second mechanism introduces a Malthusian subsistence level below which disenfranchised members of one community start to prey on the resources of another community in an appropriative coflict-setting. The third scenario explores how the long-run dynam- ics of resources and population levels interact to cause cycles of stag- nation and recovery. Predictions from the models are then applied to the ongoing conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan. Our analysis sug- gests that e¤ective resources per capita in the region appear to have declined by about 5/6 since the 1970s, which at least partially explains the observed disintegration of markets, the recent intensity of conflicts, and the current depopulation of large parts of Darfur.
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| 82. |
- Olsson, Ola, 1971, et al.
(författare)
-
Resource Windfalls and Local Government: Evidence From a Policy Reform in Indonesia
- 2015
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- We analyze the impact of a natural experiment in Indonesia that allocated certain district governments with a windfall revenue from natural resource production. Our identification is based on a comparison between bordering districts in provinces that received the windfall with those that did not receive it, before and after the fiscal reform in 1999. We study the impact on a range of outcome variables such as regional GDP, infrastructure quality, employment, education, and household consumption. Our results demonstrate a "flypaper effect" in the sense that the increased revenue led to higher spending without any lowering of local taxes. We argue that the large relative increases in spending on public services contributed to a very strong increase in local GDP levels, led by the agricultural sector. A 100-dollar windfall further increased literacy by about 2 percent and non-food consumption by 67 USD. The strong general tendency of positive effects from the reform stands in contrast to the negative effects emphasized in the resource curse literature.
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| 83. |
- Olsson, Ola, 1971
(författare)
-
Technological Opportunity and Growth
- 2005
-
Ingår i: Journal of Economic Growth. ; 10, s. 35-57
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The article presents a model of technological opportunity, modeled as a resource that is exhaustible in the short run but renewable in the long run. The exploitation and regeneration of technological opportunity is the result of an interplay between intentional incremental and radical innovations and unintentionally made discoveries. The setting for th basic model is a multidimensional metric space where existing ideas are convexly combined in order to create new ideas. When the basic set theoretical features are included in a long-run R&D model, we derive the implications for paradigm duration as well as for the growth rate of technological knowledge. We show that whereas a larger pool of R&D workers have an ambiguous effect on the short run technological growth rate, it will lead to more frequent paradigm shifts in the long run.
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| 84. |
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| 85. |
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| 86. |
- Olsson, Ola, 1971
(författare)
-
The Rise of Neolithic Agriculture
- 2001
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The article analyzes the economic reasons behind the rise of Neolithic agriculture some 10,000 years ago in consideration of evidence that agri-culture was not associated with increasing standards of living. On the basis of archeological and anthropological literature, the article presents a modelling framework that allows for four broad explanations to the agricultural transition; (i) environmental conditions, (ii) population pres-sure, (iii) cultural influence, and (iv) external factors. It is shown that the introduction of agriculture first increases welfare but then leads to a steady decline. The reason for this deterioration is the switch from a pure Malthusian population growth regime to a partly exogenous regime where population grows without constraints and drive hunter-gatherers into agriculture in a Boserupian manner. When the model is confronted with archeological evidence from the Jordan Valley, it appears that environmental change, population growth, and a uniquely favourable biogeography for domestication led to the introduction of agriculture.
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| 87. |
- Olsson, Ola, 1971
(författare)
-
Tillväxtens djupa bestämningsfaktorer
- 2019
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Ingår i: Ekonomisk Debatt. - 0345-2646. ; 2019:2, s. 5-21
-
Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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| 88. |
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| 89. |
- Olsson, Ola, 1971
(författare)
-
Unbundling Ex-Colonies: A Comment on Acemoglu, Johnson, and Robinson 2001
- 2004
-
Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In this comment on AJR (2001), we argue that a bundling of all former colonies into one "colonial" theory of comparative development is problematic for several reasons. During the mercantilist wave of mainly Latin American colonization between 1500-1830, strong capitalist institutions were largely non-existent in the Western world. During the scrable for Africa, starting in 1885, good institutions were an option, but the disease environment had then drastically changed. We show that when AJRâ??s sample of 64 former colonies is disaggregated into a Latin American, an African, and an Asian/Neo-European subsample, the proposed relationship between settler mortality and institutions is weak or rejected for Latin America and Africa.
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| 90. |
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