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. 524, March 2019
Unity in Diversity? How Intergroup Contact Can Foster Nation Building Samuel Bazzi, Arya Gaduh, Alexander D. Rothenberg, Maisy Wong Abstract We use a population resettlement program in Indonesia to identify long-run effects of intergroup contact on national integration. In the 1980s, the government relocated two million ethnically diverse migrants into hundreds of new communities. We […]
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 […]