On 28th November OxTalks will move to the new Halo platform and will become 'Oxford Events' (full details are available on the Staff Gateway).
There will be an OxTalks freeze beginning on Friday 14th November. This means you will need to publish any of your known events to OxTalks by then as there will be no facility to publish or edit events in that fortnight. During the freeze, all events will be migrated to the new Oxford Events site. It will still be possible to view events on OxTalks during this time.
If you have any questions, please contact halo@digital.ox.ac.uk
We study the impact of a major permanent productivity shock — the introduction of New World crops after 1500 — on violent conflict in Asia. Using difference in difference and event study frameworks, we show that greater caloric suitability due to the Columbian Exchange significantly increased conflict in this context. We argue that a rapacity effect — a rise in the gains from appropriation, which increased the attractiveness of certain locations to belligerents — explains this result. We show that areas that experienced greater caloric suitability became significantly more populated and urbanized, and were significantly more likely to be violently conquered by Britain.
