<i>After lots of thought, I think there may be some truth in this. First, take leverage. In creating torque, you need a longer moment arm. If we ignore the size of the rear cog (the difference between 14 and 16 tooth cogs is pretty minimal), and if we assume the same crank length, then we're looking at pushing a lever (the crank) against the force of another lever (the chainring). Because the 47-tooth chainring is smaller in diameter than the 53, the difference adds to the effective length of moment arm of the crank.In other words, it should be easier to push the 47-tooth chainring against the same force.</i>
That is not exactly correct. The difference in the cog is exactly proportional to the difference in the cahinring. If you had factored in the cog as you should have you would have realized that for a given force on the pedal you are putting the exact same tourque on the back wheel and force towards moving the bike forward.