Working Papers / Documents de travail
| Autor: | Litina, Anastasia, Roca Fernández, Èric |
|---|---|
| Přispěvatelé: | University of Macedonia [Thessaloniki] (UoM), Aix-Marseille Sciences Economiques (AMSE), École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS)-Aix Marseille Université (AMU)-École Centrale de Marseille (ECM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), This work was supported by the French National Research Agency Grant ANR-17-EURE-0020, ANR-17-EURE-0020,AMSE (EUR),Aix-Marseille School of Economics(2017), Centre d'Études et de Recherches sur le Développement International (CERDI), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Clermont Auvergne (UCA), Lhuillier, Elisabeth, Aix-Marseille School of Economics - - AMSE (EUR)2017 - ANR-17-EURE-0020 - EURE - VALID |
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2020 |
| Předmět: |
curiosity
[SHS.STAT]Humanities and Social Sciences/Methods and statistics JEL: N - Economic History/N.N1 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics • Industrial Structure • Growth • Fluctuations/N.N1.N10 - General International or Comparative JEL: O - Economic Development Innovation Technological Change and Growth/O.O5 - Economywide Country Studies/O.O5.O50 - General [SHS.ECO]Humanities and Social Sciences/Economics and Finance eclipses JEL: O - Economic Development Innovation Technological Change and Growth/O.O1 - Economic Development/O.O1.O10 - General [SHS.ENVIR]Humanities and Social Sciences/Environmental studies human capital JEL: Z - Other Special Topics/Z.Z1 - Cultural Economics • Economic Sociology • Economic Anthropology/Z.Z1.Z10 - General [SHS.ECO] Humanities and Social Sciences/Economics and Finance JEL: E - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics/E.E0 - General/E.E0.E02 - Institutions and the Macroeconomy development JEL: N - Economic History/N.N3 - Labor and Consumers Demography Education Health Welfare Income Wealth Religion and Philanthropy/N.N3.N30 - General International or Comparative |
| Zdroj: | Brown Conference on the Roots of Comparative Development Brown Conference on the Roots of Comparative Development, May 2022, Providence, United States |
| Popis: | This paper revisits the role of human capital for economic growth among pre-modern ethnic groups. We hypothesise that exposure to rare natural events drives curiosity and prompts thinking in an attempt to comprehend and explain the phenomenon, thus raising human capital and, ultimately, pre-modern growth. We focus on solar eclipses as one particular trigger of curiosity and empirically establish a robust relationship between their number and several proxies for economic prosperity: social complexity, technological level and population density. Variation in solar eclipse exposure is exogenous as their local incidence is randomly and sparsely distributed all over the globe. Additionally, eclipses' non-destructive character makes them outperform other uncanny natural events, such as volcano eruptions or earthquakes, which have direct negative economic effects. We also offer evidence compatible with the human capital increase we postulate, finding a more intricate thinking process in ethnic groups more exposed to solar eclipses. In particular, we study the development of written language, the playing of strategy games and the accuracy of the folkloric reasoning for eclipses. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
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