IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ces/ceswps/_7453.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Out of Africa Hypothesis of Comparative Economic Development: Common Misconceptions

Author

Listed:
  • Quamrul H. Ashraf
  • Oded Galor
  • Marc P. B. Klemp

Abstract

The importance of the prehistoric migration of anatomically modern humans from Africa for comparative economic development has been the focus of a vibrant research agenda in the past decade. This influential literature has attracted the attention of some scholars from other disciplines, and in light of existing methodological gaps across fields, has perhaps unsurprisingly generated some significant misconceptions. This article examines the critical views expressed by some scholars from other disciplines, and establishes that they are based on fundamental misunderstandings of the statistical methodology, the conceptual framework, and the scope of the analysis that characterize this influential literature.

Suggested Citation

  • Quamrul H. Ashraf & Oded Galor & Marc P. B. Klemp, 2019. "The Out of Africa Hypothesis of Comparative Economic Development: Common Misconceptions," CESifo Working Paper Series 7453, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_7453
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/cesifo1_wp7453.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cemal Eren Arbatli & Quamrul H. Ashraf & Oded Galor & Marc Klemp, 2019. "Diversity and Conflict," Department of Economics Working Papers 2019-10, Department of Economics, Williams College.
    2. Cemal Eren Arbatlı & Quamrul H. Ashraf & Oded Galor & Marc Klemp, 2020. "Diversity and Conflict," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 88(2), pages 727-797, March.
    3. Quamrul H. Ashraf & Oded Galor & Marc Klemp, 2018. "Interpersonal Diversity and Socioeconomic Disparities Across Populations: A Reply to Rosenberg and Kang," Working Papers 2018-14, Brown University, Department of Economics.
    4. C. Justin Cook & Jason M. Fletcher, 2018. "High-school genetic diversity and later-life student outcomes: micro-level evidence from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 307-339, September.
    5. Depetris-Chauvin, Emilio & Özak, Ömer, 2018. "The Origins of the Division of Labor in Pre-modern Times," MPRA Paper 84894, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. ¿Es buena la diversidad genética para la economía?
      by David Cuberes in Nada Es Gratis on 2019-11-27 06:07:23

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Quamrul H. Ashraf & Oded Galor & Marc Klemp, 2018. "Interpersonal Diversity and Socioeconomic Disparities Across Populations: A Reply to Rosenberg and Kang," Working Papers 2018-14, Brown University, Department of Economics.
    2. Kizys, Renatas & Mamatzakis, Emmanuel C. & Tzouvanas, Panagiotis, 2023. "Does genetic diversity on corporate boards lead to improved environmental performance?," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    3. Todea, Alexandru & Petrescu, Daiana Florina, 2021. "Is stock price informativeness shaped by our genes?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Quamrul H. Ashraf & Oded Galor & Marc Klemp, 2018. "Interpersonal Diversity and Socioeconomic Disparities Across Populations: A Reply to Rosenberg and Kang," Working Papers 2018-14, Brown University, Department of Economics.
    2. Emilio Depetris-Chauvin & Ömer Özak, 2020. "The origins of the division of labor in pre-industrial times," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 25(3), pages 297-340, September.
    3. Emilio Depetris-Chauvin & Ömer Özak, 2023. "(De facto) Historical Ethnic Borders and Contemporary Conflict in Africa," Departmental Working Papers 2303, Southern Methodist University, Department of Economics.
    4. Depetris-Chauvin, Emilio & Özak, Ömer, 2023. "(De facto) Historical Ethnic Borders and Contemporary Conflict in Africa," MPRA Paper 116868, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Trung V. Vu, 2021. "Are genetic traits associated with riots? The political legacy of prehistorically determined genetic diversity," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 74(4), pages 567-595, November.
    6. Emilio Depetris-Chauvin & Ömer Özak, 2018. "The Origins of the Division of Labor in Pre-modern Times," Departmental Working Papers 1803, Southern Methodist University, Department of Economics.
    7. Emilio Depetris-Chauvin & Ömer Özak, 2020. "The origins of the division of labor in pre-industrial times," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 25(3), pages 297-340, September.
    8. C. Justin Cook & Jason M. Fletcher, 2018. "High-school genetic diversity and later-life student outcomes: micro-level evidence from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 307-339, September.
    9. Depetris-Chauvin, Emilio & Özak, Ömer, 2019. "Borderline Disorder: (De facto) Historical Ethnic Borders and Contemporary Conflict in Africa," MPRA Paper 110197, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Sep 2021.
    10. Vu, Trung V., 2021. "Do genetically fragmented societies respond less to global warming? Diversity and climate change policies," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    11. Tamara Gurevich & Peter R. Herman & Farid Toubal & Y. Yotov, 2024. "The Domestic and International Common Language Database," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) hal-04682625, HAL.
    12. Bharati, Tushar & Jetter, Michael & Malik, Muhammad Nauman, 2024. "Types of communications technology and civil conflict," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    13. Beine, Michel & Peracchi, Silvia & Zanaj, Skerdilajda, 2023. "Ancestral diversity and performance: Evidence from football data," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 213(C), pages 193-214.
    14. Samuel Bazzi & Matthew Gudgeon, "undated". "Local Government Proliferation, Diversity, and Conflict," Boston University - Department of Economics - The Institute for Economic Development Working Papers Series dp-271, Boston University - Department of Economics.
    15. Egorov, Georgy & Enikolopov, Ruben & Makarin, Alexey & Petrova, Maria, 2021. "Divided we stay home: Social distancing and ethnic diversity," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 194(C).
    16. Gillman, Max, 2021. "Steps in industrial development through human capital deepening," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    17. Jean-Louis Combes & Pascale Combes Motel, 2022. "Que nous apprend la littérature récente sur la « nature et les causes de la richesse des nations » ?," Mondes en développement, De Boeck Université, vol. 0(3), pages 289-313.
    18. Oded Galor, 2024. "Unified Growth Theory: Roots of Growth and Inequality in the Wealth of Nations," NBER Working Papers 33288, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Todea, Alexandru & Petrescu, Daiana Florina, 2021. "Is stock price informativeness shaped by our genes?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    20. Alberto Alesina & Johann Harnoss & Hillel Rapoport, 2016. "Birthplace diversity and economic prosperity," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 101-138, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    comparative development; interpersonal population diversity; the out of Africa hypothesis;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O11 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • N10 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations - - - General, International, or Comparative
    • N30 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - General, International, or Comparative
    • Z10 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_7453. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Klaus Wohlrabe (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cesifde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.