Ancestry and development: New evidence

Enrico Spolaore · Romain T. Wacziarg

113 citations0/0 files storedJournal of Applied Econometrics

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Culture, Economy, and Development Studies Historical Economic and Social Studies Economic Growth and Productivity

Abstract

Summary We revisit the relationship between ancestral distance and barriers to the diffusion of development by replicating previous results with a new genomic dataset on human microsatellite variation. We find a statistically and economically significant effect of ancestral distance from the technological frontier on income per capita. The historical pattern of the effect is hump shaped, peaking between 1870 and 1913, and declining steeply afterwards. This suggests that ancestral distance acts as a temporary barrier to the diffusion of development. We also find that ancestral distance from the frontier is a barrier to the spread of specific technologies and institutions in modern times.

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References

2006Not by Genes Alone: How Culture Transformed Human Evolution 2003Fractionalization 2011Robust Inference With Multiway Clustering 2003Ethnic and Cultural Diversity by Country*2003The World Economy 2013The “Out of Africa” Hypothesis, Human Genetic Diversity, and Comparative Economic Development 2009The Diffusion of Development*2012How Deep Are the Roots of Economic Development?

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