Of Maize and Men : The Effect of a New World Crop on Population and Economic Growth in China

By applying a difference-in-differences (DID) analysis to the adoption of maize in China from around the mid-18th century onwards, we find that, like the potato in the Old World, maize accounted for 18% of the population increase in China during 1776-1910. Unlike the potato, however, this crop had no significant effect on economic growth. These findings corroborate narratives of China’s failure to industrialize at a time when Europe was experiencing sustained growth, and lend empirical support to the theoretical claim that under the Malthusian regime a new technology could only bring about population but not economic growth