IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/eecrev/v118y2019icp126-147.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The agricultural roots of Chinese innovation performance

Author

Listed:
  • Zhu, Jiong
  • Ang, James B.
  • Fredriksson, Per G.

Abstract

A debate is brewing in the literature on whether legacies of rice and wheat cultivation in China matters for cultural attributes, in particular individualism vs. collectivism. In turn, this important cultural dimension has recently been shown to affect the pattern of innovation across countries. However, the previous literature has not firmly connected agricultural legacies and innovation rates, and has consistently used low resolution data. We study the role of agricultural legacy for innovation performance using unique patent data from close to two thousand Chinese counties. We provide robust evidence that counties with a legacy of rice cultivation generate fewer patent applications than other counties, and a legacy of wheat production tends to be associated with more patent applications. The results for rice are robust to, e.g., controlling for temperature, precipitation, irrigation, disease burden, religiosity, and corruption, as well as accounting for migration patterns. Our results firmly establish the importance of agricultural legacy for shaping the culture of innovation.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhu, Jiong & Ang, James B. & Fredriksson, Per G., 2019. "The agricultural roots of Chinese innovation performance," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 126-147.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eecrev:v:118:y:2019:i:c:p:126-147
    DOI: 10.1016/j.euroecorev.2019.05.006
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0014292119300893
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.euroecorev.2019.05.006?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alessandra Fogli & Laura Veldkamp, 2021. "Germs, Social Networks, and Growth [Unbundling Institutions]," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 88(3), pages 1074-1100.
    2. Vanina Guernier & Michael E Hochberg & Jean-François Guégan, 2004. "Ecology Drives the Worldwide Distribution of Human Diseases," PLOS Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 2(6), pages 1-1, June.
    3. Lee, Angela Y. & Aaker, Jennifer L. & Gardner, Wendi L., 2000. "The Pleasures and Pains of Distinct Self-Construals: The Role of Interdependence in Regulatory Focus," Research Papers 1577r, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.
    4. Nathan Nunn & Nancy Qian, 2011. "The Potato's Contribution to Population and Urbanization: Evidence From A Historical Experiment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 126(2), pages 593-650.
    5. Xu, Gang & Yano, Go, 2017. "How does anti-corruption affect corporate innovation? Evidence from recent anti-corruption efforts in China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(3), pages 498-519.
    6. Heidi L. Williams, 2013. "Intellectual Property Rights and Innovation: Evidence from the Human Genome," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 121(1), pages 1-27.
    7. Easterly, William, 2007. "Inequality does cause underdevelopment: Insights from a new instrument," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(2), pages 755-776, November.
    8. Kenneth S. Chan & Jean-Pierre Laffargue, 2012. "Foreign Threats, Technological Progress And The Rise And Decline Of Imperial China," Pacific Economic Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 17(2), pages 280-303, May.
    9. Ruan, Jianqing & Xie, Zhuan & Zhang, Xiaobo, 2015. "Does rice farming shape individualism and innovation?," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 51-58.
    10. Roland Bénabou & Davide Ticchi & Andrea Vindigni, 2015. "Religion and Innovation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(5), pages 346-351, May.
    11. James B. Ang & Jakob B. Madsen, 2012. "Risk capital, private credit, and innovative production," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 45(4), pages 1608-1639, November.
    12. Daron Acemoglu, 2010. "When Does Labor Scarcity Encourage Innovation?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 118(6), pages 1037-1078.
    13. Yuriy Gorodnichenko & Gerard Roland, 2017. "Culture, Institutions, and the Wealth of Nations," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 99(3), pages 402-416, July.
    14. Louis Putterman & David N. Weil, 2010. "Post-1500 Population Flows and The Long-Run Determinants of Economic Growth and Inequality," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 125(4), pages 1627-1682.
    15. Julia I. Lane & John C. Haltiwanger & James Spletzer, 1999. "Productivity Differences across Employers: The Roles of Employer Size, Age, and Human Capital," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(2), pages 94-98, May.
    16. Matthew Cole & Robert Elliott & Jing Zhang, 2009. "Corruption, Governance and FDI Location in China: A Province-Level Analysis," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(9), pages 1494-1512.
    17. Daron Acemoglu & Joshua Linn, 2004. "Market Size in Innovation: Theory and Evidence from the Pharmaceutical Industry," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(3), pages 1049-1090.
    18. Ang, James B. & Fredriksson, Per G., 2017. "Wheat agriculture and family ties," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 236-256.
    19. Josh Lerner, 2002. "150 Years of Patent Protection," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(2), pages 221-225, May.
    20. Nordhaus, William D, 1969. "An Economic Theory of Technological Change," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 59(2), pages 18-28, May.
    21. Shane, Scott A., 1992. "Why do some societies invent more than others?," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 29-46, January.
    22. Greif, Avner, 1994. "Cultural Beliefs and the Organization of Society: A Historical and Theoretical Reflection on Collectivist and Individualist Societies," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 102(5), pages 912-950, October.
    23. Hugo A. Hopenhayn & Francesco Squintani, 2016. "Patent Rights and Innovation Disclosure," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 83(1), pages 199-230.
    24. Li, Pei & Lu, Yi & Wang, Jin, 2016. "Does flattening government improve economic performance? Evidence from China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 18-37.
    25. Suzanne Scotchmer, 1991. "Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: Cumulative Research and the Patent Law," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 5(1), pages 29-41, Winter.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wang, Jun & Ang, James B., 2024. "Epidemics, disease control, and China’s long-term development," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(1), pages 93-112.
    2. Chenchen Fan & Mingming Jiang & Bo Zhang, 2024. "Beyond cultural norms: how does historical rice farming affect modern firms' family control?," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 91(363), pages 770-808, July.
    3. Zhu, Jiong & Liu, Shouying & Li, Yihao, 2021. "Removing the “Hats of Poverty”: Effects of ending the national poverty county program on fiscal expenditures," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    4. Mohanty, Aatishya & Saxena, Akshar, 2023. "Diarrheal disease, sanitation, and culture in India," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 317(C).
    5. Fredriksson, Per G. & Gupta, Satyendra Kumar, 2023. "Irrigation and gender roles," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    6. Jayasekara, Dinithi N., 2021. "Can traditional farming practices explain attitudes towards scientific progress?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 320-339.
    7. Zeng, Sipeng & Yu, Frank, 2024. "Does farming culture shape household financial decisions?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    8. Mohanty, Aatishya & Sharma, Swati, 2022. "COVID-19 regulations, culture, and the environment," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    9. Jayasekara, Dinithi N. & Fredriksson, Per G., 2021. "Culture, intellectual property rights, and technology adoption," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 317-330.
    10. Cai, Yang & Zhu, Jiong, 2024. "Cooperative culture and the birth of modern enterprises in China: Evidence from the signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    11. Ge, Suqin & He, Quqiong & Sarangi, Sudipta, 2024. "Reaping what you sow: Historical rice farming and contemporary cooperative behavior in China," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 217(C), pages 581-613.
    12. Qin, Yu & Ruan, Jianqing & Wang, Ling & Yan, Jubo, 2022. "Genetic distance and intra-national variation in preferences and behaviours," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zhu, J., 2018. "The agricultural root of innovation in China," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277219, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    2. Ang, James B. & Madsen, Jakob B. & Wang, Wen, 2021. "Rice farming, culture and democracy," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    3. Ang, James B. & Fredriksson, Per G., 2018. "Culture, legal heritage and the regulation of labor," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 616-633.
    4. Daniel L. Bennett & Boris Nikolaev, 2021. "Individualism, pro-market institutions, and national innovation," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 57(4), pages 2085-2106, December.
    5. Ang, James B. & Fredriksson, Per G., 2017. "Wheat agriculture and family ties," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 236-256.
    6. Nancy Gallini, 2017. "Do patents work? Thickets, trolls and antibiotic resistance," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 50(4), pages 893-926, November.
    7. James B. Ang, 2015. "Agricultural Legacy, Individualistic Culture, and Techology Adoption," Economic Growth Centre Working Paper Series 1506, Nanyang Technological University, School of Social Sciences, Economic Growth Centre.
    8. Kammas, Pantelis & Sarantides, Vassilis, 2024. "Historical pathogen prevalence and the radius of trust," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    9. Klasing, Mariko J., 2013. "Cultural dimensions, collective values and their importance for institutions," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 447-467.
    10. Eric Budish & Benjamin Roin & Heidi Williams, 2013. "Do fixed patent terms distort innovation? Evidence from cancer clinical trials," Discussion Papers 13-001, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
    11. Maseland, Robbert, 2021. "Contingent determinants," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    12. Broadberry, Stephen & Ghosal, Sayantan & Proto, Eugenio, 2017. "Anonymity, efficiency wages and technological progress," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 379-394.
    13. Israel Eruchimovitch & Moti Michaeli & Assaf Sarid, 2024. "On the coevolution of individualism and institutions," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 29(3), pages 391-432, September.
    14. Leonardo M. Klüppel & Lamar Pierce & Jason A. Snyder, 2018. "Perspective—The Deep Historical Roots of Organization and Strategy: Traumatic Shocks, Culture, and Institutions," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(4), pages 702-721, August.
    15. Bhaven Sampat & Heidi L. Williams, 2019. "How Do Patents Affect Follow-On Innovation? Evidence from the Human Genome," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(1), pages 203-236, January.
    16. Casey, Gregory & Klemp, Marc, 2016. "Instrumental Variables in the Long Run," MPRA Paper 68696, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Jayasekara, Dinithi N., 2021. "Can traditional farming practices explain attitudes towards scientific progress?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 320-339.
    18. Castellani, Marco, 2019. "Does culture matter for the economic performance of countries? An overview of the literature," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 41(4), pages 700-717.
    19. Enrico Spolaore & Romain Wacziarg, 2013. "How Deep Are the Roots of Economic Development?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 51(2), pages 325-369, June.
    20. Petra Moser, 2005. "How Do Patent Laws Influence Innovation? Evidence from Nineteenth-Century World's Fairs," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(4), pages 1214-1236, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Innovation; patents; agriculture; culture; rice; wheat; long-run comparative development;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O30 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - General
    • Q01 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - General - - - Sustainable Development

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:eecrev:v:118:y:2019:i:c:p:126-147. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/eer .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.