Long-Term Barriers to the International Diffusion of Innovations

Enrico Spolaore and Romain Wacziarg

No 8541, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: We document an empirical relationship between the cross-country adoption of technologies and the degree of long-term historical relatedness between human populations. Historical relatedness is measured using genetic distance, a measure of the time since two populations? last common ancestors. We find that the measure of human relatedness that is relevant to explain international technology diffusion is genetic distance relative to the world technological frontier (?relative frontier distance?). This evidence is consistent with long-term historical relatedness acting as a barrier to technology adoption: societies that are more distant from the technological frontier tend to face higher imitation costs. The results can help explain current differences in total factor productivity and income per capita across countries.

Keywords: Genetic distance; Technological adoption; Technological frontier; Total factor productivity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F43 O33 O57 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eff and nep-opm
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (21)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Long-Term Barriers to the International Diffusion of Innovations (2012)
Chapter: Long-Term Barriers to the International Diffusion of Innovations (2011)
Working Paper: Long-Term Barriers to the International Diffusion of Innovations (2011)
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