Scaling in Human Societies

In our analysis of scaling effects in cities, we review the model of Bettencourt (2013), which holds that socioeconomic quantities such as per-capita gross domestic product of a city increase with the 1/6 power of the city’s population. However, most empirical results we examine in that same article find weaker... [Read More]

This article is Version 2. Version 1 can be found here. [Read More]

This article is Version 2. Version 1 can be found here. [Read More]

This article is Version 2. Version 1 can be found here. [Read More]

This post discusses the expansion of cooperation in the Neolithic, the current geological epoch that began 11,700 years ago in the Near-East. We will explore three hypotheses: that food surpluses, that institutions, and that common threats such as warfare are major drivers of cooperation. [Read More]