scholarly journals The Out Of Africa Hypothesis of Comparative Economic Development: Common Misconceptions

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Quamrul H. Ashraf ◽  
Marc Klemp ◽  
Oded Galor
2018 ◽  
Vol 56 (3) ◽  
pp. 1119-1155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Quamrul H. Ashraf ◽  
Oded Galor

The importance of evolutionary forces for comparative economic performance across societies has been the focus of a vibrant literature, highlighting the roles played by the Neolithic Revolution as well as the prehistoric “out of Africa” migration of anatomically modern humans in generating worldwide variations in the composition of human traits. This essay provides an overview of the literature on the macrogenoeconomics of comparative development, underscoring the significance of evolutionary processes and human population diversity in generating differential paths of economic development across societies. Furthermore, it examines the contribution of Nicholas Wade’s recent hypothesis, regarding the evolutionary origins of comparative development, to this important line of research. ( JEL N10, N30, O11, Z10)


2013 ◽  
Vol 103 (3) ◽  
pp. 528-533 ◽  
Author(s):  
Quamrul Ashraf ◽  
Oded Galor

The origin of the uneven distribution of ethnic and cultural fragmentation across countries has been underexplored, despite the importance attributed to the effects of diversity on the stability and prosperity of nations. Building on the role of deeply-rooted biogeographical forces in comparative development, this research empirically demonstrates that genetic diversity, predominantly determined during the prehistoric “out of Africa” migration of humans, is an underlying cause of various existing manifestations of ethnolinguistic heterogeneity. Further research may revolutionize our understanding of how economic development and the composition of human capital across the globe are affected by these deeply-rooted factors.


2013 ◽  
Vol 103 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Quamrul Ashraf ◽  
Oded Galor

This research advances and empirically establishes the hypothesis that, in the course of the prehistoric exodus of Homo sapiens out of Africa, variation in migratory distance to various settlements across the globe affected genetic diversity and has had a persistent hump-shaped effect on comparative economic development, reflecting the trade-off between the beneficial and the detrimental effects of diversity on productivity. While the low diversity of Native American populations and the high diversity of African populations have been detrimental for the development of these regions, the intermediate levels of diversity associated with European and Asian populations have been conducive for development. (JEL N10, N30, N50, O10, O50, Z10)


2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jade d'Alpoim Guedes ◽  
David Reich ◽  
Michael Herzfeld ◽  
Nick Patterson ◽  
Theodore Bestor ◽  
...  

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