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α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count
A dynastic cycle is a periodic alternation of society between despotism and anarchy. In a society of farmers, rulers, and bandits, population growth simultaneously impoverishes farmers and reduces the ruler's surplus per head. Society evolves into a despotic stationary state or into a dynastic cycle dependent on whether poverty among farmers chokes off population growth before the surplus shrinks to the point where rulers turn to banditry. Copyright 1989 by American Economic Association.