Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/226326 
Year of Publication: 
2020
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 8624
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
This essay explores the deepest roots of comparative economic development. It underscores the significance of evolutionary processes since the Neolithic Revolution in shaping a society's endowment of fundamental traits, such as predisposition towards child quality, time preference, loss aversion, and entrepreneurial spirit, that have contributed to differential paths of technological progress, human-capital formation, and economic development across societies. Moreover, it highlights the indelible mark of the exodus of Homo sapiens from Africa tens of thousands of years ago on the degree of interpersonal population diversity across the globe and examines the impact of this variation in diversity for comparative economic, cultural, and institutional development across countries, regions, and ethnic groups.
Subjects: 
comparative development
human evolution
natural selection
preference for child quality
time preference
loss aversion
entrepreneurial spirit
the "out of Africa" hypothesis
interpersonal diversity
JEL: 
O11
N10
N30
Z10
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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