Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/216364 
Year of Publication: 
2020
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 13052
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Variation in economic preferences is systematically related to both individual and aggregate economic outcomes, yet little is known about the origins of the worldwide preference variation. This paper uses globally representative data on risk aversion, time preference, altruism, positive reciprocity, negative reciprocity, and trust to uncover that contemporary preference heterogeneity has its roots in the structure of the temporally distant migration patterns of our very early ancestors: In dyadic regressions, differences in preferences between populations are significantly increasing in the length of time elapsed since the ancestors of the respective groups broke apart from each other. To document this pattern, we link genetic and linguistic distance measures to population-level preference differences (i) in a wide range of cross-country regressions, (ii) in within-country analyses across groups of migrants, and (iii) in analyses that leverage variation across linguistic groups. While temporal distance drives differences in all preferences, the patterns are strongest for risk aversion and prosocial traits.
Subjects: 
risk preferences
time preferences
social preferences
origins of preferences
JEL: 
D01
D03
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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