Journal Article
Ashraf N, Bau N, Nunn N, Voena A.
Bride Price and Female Education. Journal of Political Economy. Forthcoming.
AbstractThis study contributes to our understanding of the importance of cultural context for development policy. We show how the success of education policies depends on a widely-practiced marriage custom called bride price, which is a payment made by the husband to the wife's parents at marriage. We begin by developing a model of parental investment in children's education when there is a bride price. The model generates a number of predictions that we test in two countries -- Indonesia and Zambia -- that had large-scale school construction projects. Consistent with the model, we find that the amount of bride price received by the parents is increasing in their daughter's education. As a consequence, among bride price ethnic groups, female educational attainment is higher, and female education is more responsive to the school construction programs. In fact, we find that the programs had no discernible effect on the education of girls from non-bride price groups, but had large positive effects for girls from bride price groups. Thus, the success of the programs depended critically on the marriage custom.
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Appendix Sequeira S, Nunn N, Qian N.
Immigrants and the Making of America. Review of Economic Studies. Forthcoming.
AbstractWe study the effects of European immigration to the United States during the Age of Mass Migration (1850-1920) on economic prosperity. Exploiting variation in the extent of immigration across counties arising from the interaction of fluctuations in aggregate immigrant flows and the gradual expansion of the railway network, we find that counties with more historical immigration have higher incomes, less poverty, less unemployment, higher rates of urbanization, and greater educational attainment today. The long-run effects appear to arise from the persistence of sizeable short-run benefits, including greater industrialization, increased agricultural productivity, and more innovation.
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Railway Shapefiles (15 years from 1830-1921) van Dorp L, Lowes S, Weigel JL, Ansari-Pour N, Lopez S, Mendoza-Revilla J, Robinson JA, Henrich J, Thomas MG, Nunn N, et al. Genetic Legacy of State Centralization in the Kuba Kingdom of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). 2019; 116 (2) : 593-598.
AbstractFew phenomena have had as profound or long-lasting consequences in human history as the emergence of large-scale centralized states in the place of smaller-scale and more local societies. This study examines a fundamental, and yet unexplored, consequence of state formation: its genetic legacy. We study the genetic impact of state centralization during the formation of the eminent precolonial Kuba Kingdom of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in the 17th century. We analyze genome-wide data from over 690 individuals sampled from 27 different ethnic groups from the Kasai Central Province of the DRC. By comparing genetic patterns in the present-day Kuba, whose ancestors were part of the Kuba Kingdom, with those in neighboring non-Kuba groups, we show that the Kuba today are more genetically diverse and more similar to other groups in the region than expected, consistent with the historical unification of distinct subgroups during state centralization. We also find evidence of genetic mixing dating to the time of the Kingdom at its most prominent. Taken together, our findings show the power of genetics to better understand the behaviors of both people and institutions in the past.
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Supplementary Materials
PNAS Commentary Alesina A, Giuliano P, Nunn N.
Traditional Agricultural Practices and the Sex Ratio Today. PLoS ONE. 2018; 13 (1) : e0190510.
AbstractWe study the historical origins of cross-country differences in the male-to-female sex ratio. Our analysis focuses on the use of the plough in traditional agriculture. In societies that did not use the plough, women tended to participate in agriculture as actively as men. By contrast, in societies that used the plough, men specialized in agricultural work, due to the physical strength needed to pull the plough or control the animal that pulls it. We hypothesize that this difference caused plough-using societies to value boys more than girls. Today, this belief is reflected in male-biased sex ratios, which arise due to sex-selective abortion or infanticide, or gender-differences in access to family resources, which results in higher mortality rates for girls. Testing this hypothesis, we show that descendants of societies that traditionally practiced plough agriculture today have higher average male-to-female sex ratios. We find that this effect systematically increases in magnitude and statistical significance as one looks at older cohorts. Estimates using instrumental variables confirm our findings from multivariate OLS analysis.
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Supplementary Material Giuliano P, Nunn N.
Ancestral Characteristics of Modern Populations. Economic History of Developing Regions. 2018; 33 (1) : 1-17.
AbstractWe construct a database, with global coverage, that provides measures of the cultural and environmental characteristics of the pre-industrial ancestors of the world's current populations. In this paper, we describe the construction of the database, including the underlying data, the procedure to produce the estimates, and the structure of the final data. We then provide illustrations of some of the variation in the data and provide an illustration of how the data can be used.
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Data Lowes S, Nunn N, Robinson JA, Weigel J.
The Evolution of Culture and Institutions: Evidence from the Kuba Kingdom. Econometrica. 2017; 85 (4) : 1065-1091.
AbstractWe use variation in historical state centralization to examine the long-term impact of institutions on cultural norms. The Kuba Kingdom, established in Central Africa in the early 17th century by King Shyaam, had more developed state institutions than the other independent villages and chieftaincies in the region. It had an unwritten constitution, separation of political powers, a judicial system with courts and juries, a police force, a military, taxation, and significant public goods provision. Comparing individuals from the Kuba Kingdom to those from just outside the Kingdom, we find that centralized formal institutions are associated with weaker norms of rule following and a greater propensity to cheat for material gain. This finding is consistent with recent models where endogenous investments to inculcate values in children decline when there is an increase in the effectiveness of formal institutions that enforce socially desirable behavior. Consistent with such a mechanism, we find that Kuba parents believe it is less important to teach children values related to rule-following behaviors.
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Appendix
Protocols Moscona J, Nunn N, Robinson JA.
Keeping It in the Family: Lineage Organization and the Scope of Trust in Sub-Saharan Africa. American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings. 2017; 107 (5) : 565-571.
AbstractWe present evidence that the traditional structure of society is an important determinant of the scope of trust today. Within Africa, individuals belonging to ethnic groups that organized society using segmentary lineages exhibit a more limited scope of trust, measured by the gap between trust in relatives and trust in non-relatives. This trust gap arises because of lower levels of trust in non-relatives and not higher levels of trust in relatives. A causal interpretation of these correlations is supported by the fact that the effects are primarily found in rural areas where these forms of organization are still prevalent.
PDF Nunn N, de la Sierra RS.
Why Being Wrong can be Right: Magical Warfare Technologies and the Persistence of False Beliefs. American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings. 2017; 107 (5) : 582-587.
AbstractAcross human societies, one sees many examples of deeply rooted and widely-held beliefs that are almost certainly untrue. Examples include beliefs about witchcraft, magic, ordeals, and superstitions. Why are such incorrect beliefs so prevalent and how do they persist? We consider this question through an examination of superstitions and magic associated with conflict in the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Focusing on superstitions related to bullet-proofing, we provide theory and case-study evidence showing how these incorrect beliefs persist. Although harmful at the individual-level, we show that they generate Pareto efficient outcomes that have group-level benefits.
PDF Lowes S, Nunn N, Robinson JA, Weigel J.
Understanding Ethnic Identity in Africa: Evidence from the Implicit Association Test (IAT). American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings. 2015; 105 (5) : 340-345.
AbstractWe use a variant of the Implicit Association Test (IAT) to examine individuals’ implicit attitudes towards various ethnic groups. Using a population from the Democratic Republic of Congo, we find that the IAT measures show evidence of an implicit bias in favor of one’s own ethnicity. Individuals have implicit views of their own ethnic group that are more positive than their implicit views of other ethnic groups. We find this implicit bias to be quantitatively smaller than the (explicit) bias one finds when using self-reported attitudes about different ethnic groups.
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IAT program files Dragusanu R, Giovannucci D, Nunn N.
The Economics of Fair Trade. Journal of Economic Perspectives. 2014; 28 (3) : 217-236.
AbstractFair Trade is a labeling initiative aimed at improving the lives of the poor in developing countries by offering better terms to producers and helping them to organize. Whether Fair Trade can achieve its intended goals has been hotly debated in academic and policy circles. In particular, debates have been waged about whether Fair Trade makes "economic sense" and is sustainable in the long run. The aim of this article is to provide a critical overview of the economic theory behind Fair Trade, describing the potential benefits and potential pitfalls. We also provide an assessment of the empirical evidence of the impacts of Fair Trade to date.
PDF Nunn N, Qian N.
U.S. Food Aid and Civil Conflict. American Economic Review. 2014; 104 (6) : 1630-1666.
AbstractWe study the effect of U.S. food aid on conflict in recipient countries. Our analysis exploits time variation in food aid shipments due to changes in U.S. wheat production and cross-sectional variation in a country's tendency to receive any U.S. food aid. According to our estimates, an increase in U.S. food aid increases the incidence and duration of civil conflicts, but has no robust effect on inter-state conflicts or the onset of civil conflicts. We also provide suggestive evidence that the effects are most pronounced in countries with a recent history of civil conflict.
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Appendix Giuliano P, Nunn N.
The Transmission of Democracy: From the Village to the Nation-State. American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings. 2013; 103 (3) : 86-92.
AbstractWe provide evidence that a history of democracy at the local level is associated with contemporary democracy at the national level. Auxiliary estimates show that a tradition of local democracy is also associated with attitudes that favor democracy, with better quality institutions, and higher level of economic development.
PDF Nunn N, Trefler D.
Incomplete Contracts and the Boundaries of the Multinational Firm. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization. 2013; 94 (1) : 330-344.
AbstractUsing data on U.S. intra-firm and arm’s-length imports for 5,705 products imported from 220 countries, we examine the determinants of the share of U.S. imports that are intra-firm. We examine two predictions that arise from Antràs (2003), Antràs & Helpman (2008) and Antràs & Helpman (2004). First, we find that, consistent with the implicit logic of Antràs (2003) and the explicit predictions of Antràs & Helpman (2008), vertical integration is increasing in the importance of non-contractible headquarter inputs relative to non-contractible supplier inputs. In other words, we show that only non-contractible headquarter inputs affect the firm’s make-or-buy decision. Second, we also provide empirical support for the Antràs & Helpman (2004) prediction that intra-firm trade is largest where non-contractible headquarter inputs are important and productivity is high.
PDF Berger D, Easterly W, Nunn N, Satyanath S.
Commercial Imperialism? Political Influence and Trade During the Cold War. American Economic Review. 2013; 103 (2) : 863-896.
AbstractWe exploit the recent declassification of CIA documents and examine whether there is evidence of US power being used to influence countries’ decisions regarding international trade. We measure US influence using a newly constructed annual panel of CIA interventions that were successful at installing and supporting leaders during the Cold War. Our presumption is that the US had greater influence over foreign leaders that were installed and backed by the CIA. We show that following successful CIA interventions there was an increase in foreign-country imports from the US, but there was no similar increase in foreign-country exports to the US. Further, the increase in US exports was concentrated in industries which the US had a comparative disadvantage in producing, not a comparative advantage. This is consistent with US influence being used to create a larger foreign market for American products. Our analysis is able to rule out decreased bilateral trade costs, changing political ideology, and an increased supply of US loans and grants as alternative explanations. We provide evidence that the increase in US exports arose through direct purchases of US products by foreign governments.
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Appendix
Slides Alesina A, Giuliano P, Nunn N.
On the Origins of Gender Roles: Women and the Plough. Quarterly Journal of Economics. 2013; 128 (2) : 469-530.
AbstractThe study examines the historical origins of existing cross-cultural differences in beliefs and values regarding the appropriate role of women in society. We test the hypothesis that traditional agricultural practices influenced the historical gender division of labor and the evolution of gender norms. We find that, consistent with existing hypotheses, the descendants of societies that traditionally practiced plough agriculture today have less equal gender norms, measured using reported gender-role attitudes and female participation in the workplace, politics and entrepreneurial activities. Our results hold looking across countries, across districts within countries, and across ethnicities within districts. To test for the importance of cultural persistence, we examine the children of immigrants living in Europe and the United States. We find that even among these individuals, all born and raised in the same country, those with a heritage of traditional plough use exhibit less equal beliefs about gender roles today.
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Slides
Summary in Economist