Zero-Sum Thinking, the Evolution of Effort-Suppressing Beliefs and Economic Development Jean-Paul Carvalho Augustin Bergeron Joseph Henrich Nathan Nunn Jonathan L. Weigel Abstract We study the evolution of belief systems that suppress productive effort. These include concerns about the envy of others, beliefs in the importance of luck for success, disdain for competitive effort, and […]
BREAD Working Paper No. 621, June 2023
On the Importance of African Traditional Religion for Economic Behavior Lewis Dunia Butinda, Aimable Amani Lameke, Nathan Nunn, Max Posch and Raul Sanchez de la Sierra Abstract Within the field of economics, despite being widespread, African traditional religions tend to be perceived as unimportant and ignored when studying economic decision-making. This study tests whether […]
BREAD Working Paper No. 612, August 2022
Stress, Ethnicity, and Prosocial Behavior Johannes Haushofer, Sara Lowes, Nathan Nunn, Abednego Musau, Moritz Poll, David Ndetei and Nancy Qian Abstract While observational evidence suggests that people behave more prosocially towards members of their own ethnic group, many laboratory studies fail to find this effect. One possible explanation is that coethnic preference only emerges […]
BREAD Working Paper No. 606, March 2022
On the Dynamics of Human Behavior: The Past, Present, and Future of Culture, Conflict, and Cooperation Nathan Nunn Abstract I provide a theoretically-guided discussion of the dynamics of human behavior, focusing on the importance of culture (socially-learned information) and tradition (transmission of culture across generations). Decision-making that relies on tradition can be an effective […]
BREAD Working Paper No. 588, May 2021
Transhumant Pastoralism, Climate Change, and Conflict in Africa Eoin F. McGuirk and Nathan Nunn Abstract We consider the effects of climate change on seasonally migrant populations that herd livestock — i.e., transhumant pastoralists — in Africa. Traditionally, transhumant pastoralists benefit from a cooperative relationship with sedentary agriculturalists whereby arable land is used for crop farming […]
BREAD Working Paper No. 575, March 2020
Understanding Cultural Persistence and Change Paola Giuliano, Nathan Nunn Abstract We examine a determinant of cultural persistence that has emerged from a class of models in evolutionary anthropology: the similarity of the environment across generations. Within these models, when the environment is more similar across generations, the traits that have evolved up to the previous […]
BREAD Working Paper No. 540, February 2018
Bride Price and Female Education Nava Ashraf, Natalie Bau, Nathan Nunn, Alessandra Voena Abstract Although it is well known that traditional cultural practices can play an important role in develop- ment, we still have little understanding of what this means for development policy. To improve our understanding of this issue, we examine how the effects […]
BREAD Working Paper No. 539, February 2018
The Effects of Fair Trade Certification: Evidence From Coffee Producers in Costa Rica Raluca Dragusanu, Nathan Nunn Abstract We examine the effects of Fair Trade (FT) certification of coffee on producers and households in Costa Rica. Examining the production dynamics of the universe of Costa Rican coffee mills from 1999–2014, we find that FT certification […]
BREAD Working Paper No. 538, January 2018
Social Structure and Conflict: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa Jacob Moscona, Nathan Nunn, James A. Robinson Abstract We test the long-standing hypothesis that ethnic groups that are organized around ‘segmentary lineages’ are more prone to conflict and civil war. Ethnographic accounts suggest that in segmen- tary lineage societies, which are characterized by strong allegiances to distant relatives, […]
BREAD Working Paper No. 527, November 2017
The Long-run Effects of Agricultural Productivity on Conflict, 1400-1900 Murat Iyigun, Nathan Nunn, Nancy Qian Abstract This paper provides evidence of the long-run effects of a permanent increase in agricultural productivity on conflict. We construct a newly digitized and geo-referenced dataset of battles in Europe, the Near East and North Africa covering the period be- […]