TY  - JOUR
AU  - Spolaore,Enrico
AU  - Wacziarg,Romain
TI  - The Diffusion of Development
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 12153
PY  - 2006
Y2  - April 2006
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12153
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12153.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Enrico Spolaore
Department of Economics
Tufts University
Braker Hall
8 Upper Campus Road
Medford, MA 02155
Tel: 617/627-4068
Fax: 617/627-3917
E-Mail: enrico.spolaore@tufts.edu

Romain Wacziarg
Anderson School of Management at UCLA
C-510 Entrepreneurs Hall
110 Westwood Plaza
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1481
Tel: 310 825 4507
E-Mail: wacziarg@ucla.edu
AB  - This paper studies the barriers to the diffusion of development across countries over the very long-run. We find that genetic distance, a measure associated with the amount of time elapsed since two populations%u2019 last common ancestors, bears a statistically and economically significant correlation with pairwise income differences, even when controlling for various measures of geographical isolation, and other cultural, climatic and historical difference measures.  These results hold not only for contemporary income differences, but also for income differences measured since 1500 and for income differences within Europe. We uncover similar patterns of coefficients for the proximate determinants of income differences, particularly for differences in human capital and institutions. The paper discusses the economic mechanisms that are consistent with these facts. We present a framework in which differences in human characteristics transmitted across generations - including culturally transmitted characteristics - can affect income differences by creating barriers to the diffusion of innovations, even when they have no direct effect on productivity. The empirical evidence over time and space is consistent with this "barriers" interpretation.
ER  -