“The Economic Origins of Government”, Robert C. Allen, Mattia C. Bertazzini, Leander Heldring2023-10-01 (economics, politics)⁠:

We test between cooperative and extractive theories of the origins of government. We use river shifts in southern Iraq as a natural experiment, in a new archaeological panel dataset. A shift away creates a local demand for a government to coordinate because private river irrigation needs to be replaced with public canals. It disincentivizes local extraction as land is no longer productive without irrigation.

Consistent with a cooperative theory of government, a river shift away led to state formation, canal construction, and the payment of tribute.

We argue that the first governments coordinated between extended households which implemented public good provision.