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The "Out of Africa" Hypothesis, Human Genetic Diversity, and Comparative Economic Development

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Abstract

This research argues that deep-rooted factors, determined tens of thousands of years ago, had a significant effect on the course of economic development from the dawn of human civilization to the contemporary era. It advances and empirically establishes the hypothesis that, in the course of the exodus of Homo sapiens out of Africa, variation in migratory distance from the cradle of humankind to various settlements across the globe affected genetic diversity and has had a long-lasting effect on the pattern of comparative economic development that is not captured by geographical, institutional, and cultural factors. In particular, the level of genetic diversity within a society is found to have a hump-shaped effect on development outcomes in both the pre-colonial and the modern era, reflecting the trade-off between the beneficial and the detrimental effects of diversity on productivity. While the intermediate level of genetic diversity prevalent among Asian and European populations has been conducive for development, the high degree of diversity among African populations and the low degree of diversity among Native American populations have been a detrimental force in the development of these regions.

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by Department of Economics, Williams College in its series Center for Development Economics with number 2010-03.

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Length: 72 pages
Date of creation: Aug 2010
Date of revision: Jun 2011
Handle: RePEc:wil:wilcde:2010-03

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Keywords: The "Out of Africa" hypothesis; Human genetic diversity; Comparative development; Income per capita; Population density; Neolithic Revolution; Land productivity;

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Citations

Blog mentions

As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
  1. Genetic Diversity and Economic Development
    by Jason Collins in Evolving Economics on 2012-09-12 10:34:43
  2. A week of links
    by Jason Collins in Evolving Economics on 2013-02-01 12:05:08
  3. The ‘Out of Africa’ Hypothesis, Human Genetic Diversity, and Comparative Economic Development
    by Jason Collins in Evolving Economics on 2013-02-07 13:33:43
  4. Does genetic diversity increase innovation?
    by Jason Collins in Evolving Economics on 2013-02-12 12:42:40
  5. The new Oded Galor and Quamrul Ashraf paper
    by Tyler Cowen in Marginal Revolution on 2012-09-11 10:07:12
  6. Publishing on genetic diversity and economic growth
    by Jason Collins in Evolving Economics on 2013-02-27 13:53:47
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