Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP8541
Authors: Enrico Spolaore; Romain Wacziarg
Abstract: We document an empirical relationship between the cross-country adoption of technologies and the degree of long-term historical relatedness between human populations. Historical relatedness is measured using genetic distance, a measure of the time since two populations? last common ancestors. We find that the measure of human relatedness that is relevant to explain international technology diffusion is genetic distance relative to the world technological frontier (?relative frontier distance?). This evidence is consistent with long-term historical relatedness acting as a barrier to technology adoption: societies that are more distant from the technological frontier tend to face higher imitation costs. The results can help explain current differences in total factor productivity and income per capita across countries.
Keywords: genetic distance; technological adoption; technological frontier; total factor productivity
JEL Codes: F43; O33; O57
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| genetic distance (C49) | technology adoption (O33) |
| relative frontier distance (R12) | technology adoption (O33) |
| technology adoption (O33) | total factor productivity (TFP) (D24) |
| technology adoption (O33) | income per capita (D31) |
| genetic distance (C49) | relative frontier distance (R12) |