Ancient Origins of the Global Variation in Economic Preferences

Anke Becker (), Benjamin Enke and Armin Falk
Additional contact information
Anke Becker: University of Bonn

No 13052, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

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.

Keywords: origins of preferences; social preferences; time preferences; risk preferences (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D01 D03 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 63 pages
Date: 2020-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-evo, nep-gro, nep-upt and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (29)

Published - published in: AEA Papers and Proceedings, 2020, 110, 319–323

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Related works:
Journal Article: Ancient Origins of the Global Variation in Economic Preferences (2020)
Working Paper: Ancient Origins of the Global Variation in Economic Preferences (2018)
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