资源描述：
《long-term barriers to economic development》由会员上传分享，免费在线阅读，更多相关内容在工程资料-天天文库。
1、CHAPTERTHREELong-TermBarrierstoEconomicDevelopmentEnricoSpolaore*andRomainWacziarg†*DepartmentofEconomics,TuftsUniversity,NBER,CESIfoandCAGE,Medford,MA,02155-6722,USAUCLAAndersonSchoolofManagement,NBERandCEPR,110WestwoodPlaza,LosAngeles,CA,90024,USAAbstractWhatobstaclespreventthemostproductivetech
2、nologiesfromspreadingtolessdevelopedeconomiesfromtheworld’stechnologicalfrontier?Inthispaper,weseektoshedlightonthisquestionbyquan-tifyingthegeographicandhumanbarrierstothetransmissionoftechnologies.Wearguethattheintergenerationaltransmissionofhumantraits,particularlyculturallytransmittedtraits,ha
3、sledtodiver-gencebetweenpopulationsoverthecourseofhistory.Inturn,thisdivergencehasintroducedbarrierstothediffusionoftechnologiesacrosssocieties.Weprovidemeasuresofhistoricalandgenealogicaldistancesbetweenpopulations,anddocumenthowsuchdistances,relativetotheworld’stechnolog-icalfrontier,actasbarrier
4、stothediffusionofdevelopmentandofspecificinnovations.Weprovideaninterpretationoftheseresultsinthecontextofanemergingliteratureseekingtounderstandvariationineconomicdevelopmentastheresultoffactorsrooteddeepinhistory.KeywordsLong-rungrowth,Geneticdistance,Intergenerationaltransmission,Diffusionofinnova
5、tionsJELClassificationCodesO11,O33,O40,O573.1.INTRODUCTIONTechnologicaldifferenceslieattheheartofdifferencesineconomicperformanceacrosscountries.Alargeandgrowingliteratureondevelopmentaccountingdemonstratesthattotalfactorproductivityaccountsforasizeablefractionofcross-countrydifferencesinpercapitai
6、ncome(HallandJones,1999;Caselli,2005;HsiehandKlenow,2010,amongmanyothers).Theproblemoflowtechnologicaladvancementinpoorcountriesisnotprimarilyoneoflackofinnovation,becausetechnologiesthatcouldmakethesecountriesvastlyricherexistandareusedelsewhereintheworld.Amajorproblem,instead,isoneofdelayedtechn
7、ologicaladoption.Thatmanycountriesaresubjecttolargetechnologicalusagegapsisawell-documentedphenomenon.However,thefactorsexplainingdelayedtechnologicaladoptionarenotwellunderstood.Whatpreventsthemostproductivetech
