Theories of the Transition to Agriculture

Why did the transition to domesticated plants and animals occur? I start by reviewing some stylized facts that are key for understanding this transition. I then discuss the merits of the major economic theories of the reasons behind the transition to agriculture with a focus on the role of climate changes leading up to the onset of the warm Holocene in 11.7 kya. I present a class of models that broadly cluster around population growth, institutional innovations, and habitat and climate change. The chapter ends with the observation that humans in important ways also domesticated themselves.