Long-Term Barriers to the International Diffusion of Innovations

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.

Review of Cultural Evolution: Society, Technology, Language, and Religion Edited by Peter J. Richerson and Morten H. Christiansen

“…The second and most important contribution comes from Spolaore and Wacziarg (2012), who go one step further, linking the histories of populations to the evolution of technology. Their main point is that similarity in intergenerationally transmitted traits tends to reduce the barriers to technology adoption; that is, populations that share more similar intergenerationally transmitted traits face lower costs when imitating each other's innovations.…”

Network-based Connectedness and the Diffusion of Cultural Traits

“…Cultural aspects affect the quality of economic interactions and institutional development (Guiso et al, 2009;Tabellini, 2010), the utilization of resources (Duflo, 2012), and individual preferences (Campante andYanagizawa-Drott, 2015, Atkin, 2016). Cultural distances between countries can influence the speed of democratic transition (Murtin and Wacziarg, 2014) and knowledge diffusion (Spolaore and Wacziarg, 2011).…”

International Technology Spillovers and Growth over the Past 142 Years: The Role of Genetic Proximity

“…First, in a series of papers Spolaore and Wacziarg (, , ) show that genetic proximity is a very effective facilitator of technology transmission across countries. In their 2009 paper they show that the genetic distance from the USA is significantly correlated with current per capita income differences between countries, even after controlling for geographic distance, climate and resources.…”

“…Extending the genetic distance data further back in time, Spolaore and Wacziarg () show that genetic distance relative to England was a significant predictor of technological sophistication in 1500. Furthermore, using historical and contemporary data on utilization rates of a wide range of technologies, Spolaore and Wacziarg (, ) show that countries that are genetically distant from the innovators have lower productivity than countries that are genetically close to the innovating countries.…”

“…Second, populations that are genetically closely related tend to be similar with respect to traits such as habits, beliefs, customs and values, and these traits are transmitted from one generation to the next (Spolaore and Wacziarg ). Spolaore and Wacziarg (, p. 12) state explicitly that ‘even relatively trivial differences in attitudes, appearance or behavior between groups may lead to misunderstanding or discrimination, and may create significant barriers to communication and social interactions, reducing opportunities for learning and imitation’. Using data for China and Taiwan, Bai and Kung () find that economic exchanges and communication are positively related to genetic proximity.…”