Surname distance and technology diffusion: the case of the adoption of maize in late imperial China

Like genetic distance, surname distance provides a measure of potential differences in population characteristics (e.g., biological, cultural, and institutional). We construct a unique measure of surname distance for the ethnic Han population based on the distribution of Chinese surnames for the period 960–1368AD to examine its impact on the diffusion of technology—specifically maize adoption—in late imperial China. Our analysis finds that a one standard deviation increase in the surname distance between a pair of prefectures lowers the probability of technology diffusion by approximately 7.3 percent during the 50-year period 1650–1700 and 7.0 percent during the 100-year period 1650–1750. However, the effect becomes less over longer periods, presumably because the once-novel technology diffused thoroughly over time. As a check of robustness, we further confirm that surname distance also significantly affected the diffusion of other types of technology such as those associated with the Industrial Revolution.