The origins of the division of labor in pre-industrial times

Emilio Depetris-Chauvin and Ömer Özak

Journal of Economic Growth, 2020, vol. 25, issue 3, No 2, 297-340

Abstract: Abstract This research explores the historical roots of the division of labor in pre-industrial societies. Exploiting a variety of identification strategies and a novel ethnic level dataset combining geocoded ethnographic, linguistic and genetic data, it shows that higher levels of intra-ethnic diversity were conducive to economic specialization in the pre-industrial era. The findings are robust to a host of geographical, institutional, cultural and historical confounders, and suggest that variation in intra-ethnic diversity is a key predictor of the division of labor in pre-industrial times.

Keywords: Comparative development; Division of labor; Economic specialization; Intra-ethnic diversity; Cultural diversity; Population diversity; Genetic diversity; Linguistic diversity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D74 F10 F14 J24 N10 O10 O11 O12 O40 O43 O44 Z10 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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Related works:
Working Paper: The Origins of the Division of Labor in Pre-Industrial Times (2020)
Working Paper: The Origins of the Division of Labor in Pre-Industrial Times (2018)
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DOI: 10.1007/s10887-020-09179-2

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