Anti-Malthus: Conflict and the evolution of societies

The Malthusian theory of evolution disregards a pervasive fact about human societies:they expand through conflict. When this is taken account of the long-run favors not alarge population at the level of subsistence, nor yet institutions that maximize welfare orper capita output, but rather institutions that generate large amount of free resources anddirect these towards state power. Free resources are the output available to society afterdeducting the payments necessary for subsistence and for the incentives needed to induceproduction, and the other claims to production such as transfer payments and resourcesabsorbed by elites. We develop the evolutionary underpinnings of this model, andexamine the implications for the evolution of societies in several applications. Since freeresources are increasing both in per capita income and population, evolution will favorlarge rich societies. We will show how technological improvement can increase ordecrease per capita output as well as increasing population.