Roots of Autocracy

Oded Galor and Marc Klemp

No 23301, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Exploiting a novel geo-referenced data set of population diversity across ethnic groups, this research advances the hypothesis and empirically establishes that variation in population diversity across human societies, as determined in the course of the exodus of human from Africa tens of thousands of years ago, contributed to the differential formation of pre-colonial autocratic institutions within ethnic groups and the emergence of autocratic institutions across countries. Diversity has amplified the importance of institutions in mitigating the adverse effects of non-cohesiveness on productivity, while contributing to the scope for domination, leading to the formation of institutions of the autocratic type.

JEL-codes: O10 O43 Z1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-evo, nep-gro, nep-his and nep-soc
Note: EFG POL
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Roots of Autocracy (2017)
Working Paper: Roots of Autocracy (2017)
Working Paper: Roots of Autocracy (2015)
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