National Rice Culture Theory and Economic Growth in Asia

초록

This study proposes a crop-based theory of development and tests it using unique cross-national panel data sets. While Weberian and institutional economic theorists have previously explained East Asian development by applying Confucianism or developmental-state theory to successful cases in the region, I highlight the long-term legacy of rice cultivation as the underlying characteristic shaping national labor profiles. On this theory, the tightly knit, collaborative labor organizations characteristic of rice cultivation formed the basis of a capitalist production system distinctive to East and broader Asia. Multivariate analyses show a positive association between rice cultivation and economic growth rate through relational immobility (in mediation models), as well as an amplifying effect of rice cultivation on the association between employment in manufacturing and economic growth (in fixed-effects models). These findings support the argument that rice farming has provided a cultural template for economic growth, one that workers and engineers have drawn on to advance industrial productivity in factories and offices.

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