Working Paper: NBER ID: w25289
Authors: Oded Galor; Mer Zak; Assaf Sarid
Abstract: This research explores the geographical origins of the coevolution of cultural and linguistic traits in the course of human history, relating the geographical roots of long-term orientation to the structure of the future tense, the agricultural determinants of gender bias to the presence of sex-based grammatical gender, and the ecological origins of hierarchical orientation to the existence of politeness distinctions. The study advances the hypothesis and establishes empirically that: (i) geographical characteristics that were conducive to higher natural return to agricultural investment contributed to the existing cross-language variations in the structure of the future tense, (ii) the agricultural determinants of gender gap in agricultural productivity fostered the existence of sex-based grammatical gender, and (iii) the ecological origins of hierarchical societies triggered the emergence of politeness distinctions.
Keywords: Cultural Traits; Linguistic Traits; Agricultural Investment; Gender Bias; Politeness Distinctions
JEL Codes: O10; Z10; Z13
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| geographical characteristics associated with higher potential crop returns in the urheimat of languages (Q15) | presence of periphrastic future tense (D84) |
| caloric yield of plow-negative crops (Q42) | probability of having sex-based grammatical gender (J16) |
| caloric yield of all crops (Q49) | probability of having sex-based grammatical gender (J16) |
| ecological diversity in the urheimat (Q57) | emergence of politeness distinctions in pronouns (Z13) |