Answer the following about data sets used to compute levels of historical economic activity, for 10 points each.
[10m] Paul Bairoch’s data panel of this variable is widely used as a proxy for output, motivated in part by Malthusian theory. Felix Auerbach’s observation that this variable follows a power law was a precursor to Zipf’s Law.
ANSWER: city population [or town population; prompt on population by asking “of what units?”]
[10h] The University of Groningen hosts this late economist’s long-running project to compute country-level GDP per capita since Roman times. This British economist’s “extrapolation method” ignored price changes in historical data series.
ANSWER: Angus Maddison
[10e] Economist Rick Steckel made the cover of Time magazine with his work on anthropometry, which proxies historical living standards largely based on this characteristic. In a major reversal since the 19th century, the Dutch today have high average values of this trait.
ANSWER: height [accept stature]
<CS, Social Science>