Clans, Guilds, and Markets: Apprenticeship Institutions and Growth in the Preindustrial Economy*

Croix, David de la; Doepke, Matthias; Mokyr, Joel

doi:10.1093/qje/qjx026

“…Kinship intensity fosters corruption (Akbari et al (217)), hinders the development of large-scale, well-functioning institutions (Schulz (98),Woodley and Bell (218)), and -as we report here -decreases outgroup trust (which is an important prerequisite for trade and the division of labor). Other plausible channels include the possibility that kinship intensity distorts creativity (see Table S3.2 above) and entrepreneurial incentives (as profits need to be shared with the kin-group) and hampers the diffusion of technology (219). Thus, GDP is most likely -at least partially -determined by kinship intensity.…”

Section: Robustness Check: Gdpmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Origins of WEIRD Psychology

Schulz

¹

,

Barahmi-Rad

²

,

Beauchamp

³

et al. 2018

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Recent research not only confirms the existence of substantial psychological variation around the globe but also highlights the peculiarity of populations that are Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic (WEIRD). We propose that much of this variation arose as people psychologically adapted to differing kin-based institutions-the set of social norms governing descent, marriage, residence and related domains. We further propose that part of the variation in these institutions arose historically from the Catholic Church's marriage and family policies, which contributed to the dissolution of Europe's traditional kin-based institutions, leading eventually to the predominance of nuclear families and impersonal institutions. By combining data on 20 psychological outcomes with historical measures of both kinship and Church exposure, we find support for these ideas in a comprehensive array of analyses across countries, among European regions and between individuals with different cultural backgrounds. A growing body of research suggests that populations around the globe vary substantially along several important psychological dimensions, and that people from societies characterized as Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic (WEIRD) are particularly unusual (1-6). Often at the extremes of global distributions, people from WEIRD populations tend to be more individualistic, independent, analytically-minded and impersonally prosocial (e.g., trusting strangers) while revealing less conformity, obedience, in-group loyalty and nepotism (3, 5-13). While these patterns are now well documented, efforts to explain this variation from a cultural evolutionary and historical perspective have just begun (13-20). Here, we develop and test a cultural evolutionary theory that aims to explain a substantial portion of this psychological variation, both within and across nations. Not only does our approach contribute to explaining global variation and address why WEIRD societies so often occupy the tail ends of global distributions, but it also helps explain the psychological variation within Europe-among countries, across regions within countries and between individuals with different cultural backgrounds within the same country and region. Our approach integrates three insights. The first, drawing on anthropology, reveals that the institutions built around kinship and marriage vary greatly across societies (21-23) and that much of this variation developed as societies scaled up in size and complexity, especially after the origins of food production 12,000 years ago (22, 24-29). In forging the tightly-knit communities needed to defend agricultural fields and pastures, cultural evolution gradually wove together social norms governing marriage, post-marital residence and ingroup identity (descent), leading to a diversity of kin-based institutions, including the organizational forms known as clans, lineages and kindreds (21, 27, 30). The second insight, based on work in psychology, is that people's motivations, em...

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“…The relationship between apprenticeships and technological change has been one of the most important debates in economic history and the history of technology. Specifically, the debate has been over the role played by occupational guilds through which the system of apprenticeship practices has been operationalized and monitored (Lave and Wenger 1991;Wallis 2008;de la Croix, Doepke, and Mokyr 2018;Epstein 1998;Humphries 2003;Ogilvie 2004Ogilvie , 1997. One of the central debates has been whether apprenticeships contribute to or retard technological change.…”

Section: Apprenticeships and Technological Changementioning

confidence: 99%

Apprenticeship and product quality: empirical analysis on the sake brewing industry

Hori

¹

,

Hoshino

²

,

Shimizu

³

2020

Management & Organizational History

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Do apprenticeships enhance product quality? Whether guilds and apprenticeships have promoted technological change has been debated, but the issue remains unsettled because of the lack of data which allows us to empirically assess technological change by apprenticeships in the comparison with technological change by non-apprenticeships. By scrutinizing apprenticeships in the sake brewing industry and utilizing the national sake quality competition results and the master brewer list, this study examines to what extent the craftsmen trained through an apprenticeship enhanced or reduced product quality. The empirical results indicate that the training in apprenticeships actually decreases the probability of winning quality competitions, which indicates that apprenticeships do not improve product quality. Thus, we discuss why apprenticeships was a dominant form of training and learning, even if they had little bona fide utility for product quality. We show that brewers originally utilized apprenticeship-type practices adopted for migrant labor to reduce production costs. This study also shows that the breweries began to create a positive imagery associated with apprenticeships and sake quality from the 1980s even though apprenticeships actually reduce the probability of brewing highquality sake.

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“…Kinship intensity fosters corruption (Akbari et al (217)), hinders the development of large-scale, well-functioning institutions (Schulz (98),Woodley and Bell (218)), and -as we report here -decreases outgroup trust (which is an important prerequisite for trade and the division of labor). Other plausible channels include the possibility that kinship intensity distorts creativity (see Table S3.2 above) and entrepreneurial incentives (as profits need to be shared with the kin-group) and hampers the diffusion of technology (219). Thus, GDP is most likely -at least partially -determined by kinship intensity.…”

Section: Robustness Check: Gdpmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Origins of WEIRD Psychology

Schulz¹,

Barahmi-Rad²,

Beauchamp³

et al. 2018

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Recent research not only confirms the existence of substantial psychological variation around the globe but also highlights the peculiarity of populations that are Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic (WEIRD). We propose that much of this variation arose as people psychologically adapted to differing kin-based institutions—the set of social norms governing descent, marriage, residence and related domains. We further propose that part of the variation in these institutions arose historically from the Catholic Church’s marriage and family policies, which contributed to the dissolution of Europe’s traditional kin-based institutions, leading eventually to the predominance of nuclear families and impersonal institutions. By combining data on 20 psychological outcomes with historical measures of both kinship and Church exposure, we find support for these ideas in a comprehensive array of analyses across countries, among European regions and between individuals with different cultural backgrounds.

show abstract

Clans, Guilds, and Markets: Apprenticeship Institutions and Growth in the Preindustrial Economy*

Cited by 98 publications

References 101 publications

The Origins of WEIRD Psychology

The Origins of WEIRD Psychology

Apprenticeship and product quality: empirical analysis on the sake brewing industry

The Origins of WEIRD Psychology

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