Theories

Question 1

Ian Morris’ Index of Social Development

Answer 1

1. ‘Urbanism’
2. Consumption per person - measured in kilocalories per
   day.
3. Information technology.
4. Warmaking and the technology of warfare.

Question 2

Williamson (1965)

Answer 2

Considers the “north-south problem” of various developed and developing countries

Regional inequality is very high in middle income countries and lower in high income countries

Question 3

Theories of Income Disparities

Answer 3

Institutions: the rules according to which society is
organized

Culture: beliefs

Geography: climate, distance to the coast, etc

Question 4

Challenges to identifying causes of growth

Answer 4

Omitted variables, Endogeneity

Question 5

Example of omitted variables in growth explanation

Answer 5

Places with tropical climates may be different from temperate countries in many ways that

Question 6

Example of endogeneity variables in growth explanation

Answer 6

Richer countries can afford better institutions, more prosperous citizens/businesses are better able to
control corruption

Question 7

Theories on Human Differences from Apes

Answer 7

Intelligence, Cooperative Abilities, and Multiplicity of Instincts (language, tools, empathy, self-awareness)

Question 8

Cultural Brain Hypothesis

Answer 8

cultural evolution drove (and
drives) genetic evolution

Question 9

Individual learning

Answer 9

individuals are reasoning or
interacting alone with the world—trial and error

Question 10

Social learning

Answer 10

broad category which includes cultural learning as a subcategory.

Question 11

Cultural learning

Answer 11

involves observing and then
attempting to reconstruct (“copy”) the goals, strategies, motivations and motor patterns of others.

Question 12

Prestige cues

Answer 12

Attention and gaze (watching)
Listening
Imitating
Hanging around (maintaining proximity)

Question 13

ADH1B variant

Answer 13

Example of Natural Selection

cereal -> beer and wine

New variant metabolizes alcohol BETTER, but in the
process dumps large amounts of acetaldehyde into
the blood.

Causes a “flushing reaction”: dizziness, increased
heart rate, weakness, overheating and reddening
of the skin.

Massively reduces risk of heavy drinking and
alcoholism.

Question 14

Ability to Drink Milk

Answer 14

Example of culturally created
selection pressures

Cultural evolution in dairying, where domesticated mammals like cows provided milk primarily for children under 5, leading to selection pressure for lactase persistence in adults.

Question 15

Autocatalytic

Answer 15

those who were genetically better able at cultural learning did better

Question 16

Consequence of Cultural Evolution

Answer 16

To fuel energy-intensive brain, we increased efficienty of food procurement (collecting vs. extracting) and reduced our guts:
Cooking externalizes digestion, and our digestive systems have
shrunk

IWe are not physically strong anymore, but are very good
runners and have great motor dexterity

Question 17

Diamond’s Thesis

Answer 17

All humans were biologically similar in 11,000BC. So differences in emergence of settled societies must be due to environmental differences.

Question 18

Evidence of Diamond’s Thesis

Answer 18

The Llama and Alpaca never spread to Mexico, and Mexican writing
never spread to South America.

European technologies did not disseminate south of the Sahara desert.

Question 19

Proximate Causes

Answer 19

Variables that directly enter the
production function: physical and human capital, the
labor force, total factor productivity, raw materials, etc

Question 20

Fundamental causes

Answer 20

reasons why human
capital is higher, the reasons why citizens have incentives to innovate, lie behind factor accumulation and
TFP growth

Question 21

Types of Fundamental Explanations

Answer 21

1. Institutions (humanly-devised rules shaping incentives)
2. Geography (differences in environment and ecology)
3. Culture (differences in beliefs)
4. Chance

Question 22

North and Thomas

Answer 22

Argued that economic growth comes naturally when
institutions provide incentives; the development of “efficient” institutions (those that encourage economic growth) is the central reason for the ‘Rise of the Western World’

Question 23

Examples of the “Rise of the Western World” (North and Thomas)

Answer 23

(1) the invention of a
method for ships to tell their longitude; (2) pirates in
the Mediterranean; (3) the Mesta.

Question 24

Theories of Industrial Revolution

Answer 24

Exploitation of oversees colonies (Williams, 1944)

Demography (Hajnal 1965) - cultural checks on fertility

Institutions (North 1973) - property rights, patent laws, etc.

Scientific Revolution (Mokyr, 1992) - i.e. the Scientific Method, Republic of Letters