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Gunes Gokmen . Photo

Gunes Gokmen

Associate senior lecturer

Gunes Gokmen . Photo

Genetic distance, trade, and the diffusion of development

Author

  • Vincenzo Bove
  • Gunes Gokmen

Summary, in English

The determinants of countries' long‐term income differences feature prominently in the literature. Spolaore and Wacziarg (The diffusion of development, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2009, 124, 469–529) argue that cultural differences, measured by countries' genetic distance, are an important barrier to the diffusion of development from the world's technological frontier. We revisit their findings in three ways. First, we successfully reproduce their results and confirm the robustness of their baseline findings. Second, we estimate their models for different time periods and find that the impact of genetic distance on income differences did not significantly change over time. Finally, we explore one of the underlying mechanisms of technology adoption and show that bilateral trade is one channel through which cultural differences retard the diffusion of development.

Publishing year

2018

Language

English

Publication/Series

Journal of Applied Econometrics

Volume

33

Issue

4

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

John Wiley & Sons Inc.

Topic

  • Economics

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0883-7252