Ancient Origins of the Global Variation in Economic Preferences

Anke Becker, Benjamin Enke and Armin Falk

No 24291, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

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.

JEL-codes: D03 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-evo, nep-gro, nep-mac, nep-upt and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

Published as Anke Becker & Benjamin Enke & Armin Falk, 2020. "Ancient Origins of the Global Variation in Economic Preferences," AEA Papers and Proceedings, vol 110, pages 319-323.

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Journal Article: Ancient Origins of the Global Variation in Economic Preferences (2020)
Working Paper: Ancient Origins of the Global Variation in Economic Preferences (2020)
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