A few years ago, two economics professors, Quamrul Ashraf and Oded Galor, published a paper, The Out of Africa Hypothesis, Human Genetic Diversity, and Comparative Economic Development, that drew inferences about poverty and genetics based on a statistical pattern.
The worlds most genetically diverse countries (using their measure of what counts as genetically diverse) are in sub-Saharan Africa, which is the worlds poorest region. The least genetically diverse countries are in places like Bolivia, which have low incomes but not as low as in that region of Africa. Theres an intermediate level of genetic diversity among the residents of the middle-income and rich countries in Asia, Europe and North America.
Genetic diversity arises from migratory distance of populations from East Africa. Countries in east Africa have the highest genetic diversity because this is where humans evolved. Populations that settled in other parts of the world descend from various subgroups of people who left Africa at different times. Thus, these groups are less varied in their genetic profiles.
Ashraf and Galor put this together and argued that this is reflecting the trade-off between the beneficial and the detrimental effects of diversity on productivity. Their argument was that a little bit of genetic diversity is a good thing because a wider spectrum of traits is more likely to be complementary to the development and successful implementation of advanced technological paradigms, but if a country is too genetically diverse, its economy will suffer from reduced cooperation and efficiency. Thus, they wrote, the high degree of diversity among African populations and the low degree of diversity among Native American populations have been a detrimental force in the development of those regions.
Any claim that economic outcomes can be explained by genes will be immediately controversial. It can be interpreted as a justification of the status quo, as if it is arguing that existing economic inequality among countries has a natural, genetic cause. See this paper by Guedes et al. for further discussion of this point.
When the paper by Ashraf and Galor came out, I criticzed it from a statistical perspective, questioning what I considered its overreach in making counterfactual causal claims such as:
increasing the diversity of the most homogenous country in the sample (Bolivia) by 1 percentage point would raise its income per capita in the year 2000 CE by 41 percent, (ii) decreasing the diversity of the most diverse country in the sample (Ethiopia) by 1 percentage point would raise its income per capita by 21 percent.
I argued (and continue to believe) that the problems in that paper reflect a more general issue in social science: There is an incentive to make strong and dramatic claims to get published in a top journal.
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My criticisms were of a general sort. Recently, Shiping Tang sent me a paper criticizing Ashraf and Galor from a data-analysis perspective, arguing that their effect goes away after including allowing for a Eurasia effect, from Jared Diamonds hypothesis in his book, Guns, Germs, and Steel that Eurasia had an economic advantage from two sources: the availability of domesticable animals and a more favorable geography in that innovations could be spread along east-west rather than north-south axes, with these two features favoring the development of agricultural societies.
Tang writes:
we provide a systematic econometric rebuttal against Ashraf and Galor, based on Ashraf and Galors (2012) own data. We do not question the possible link between migratory distance and predicted genetic diversity: We give Ashraf and Galor the benefit of doubt that migratory distance is a good proxy for predicted genetic diversity. Neither do we challenge the link between genetic diversity and innovation or the link between genetic diversity and cooperation/conflict, although we do wish to note that the case presented by Ashraf and Galor (2012) on these two possible causal links has been weak at best. . . . Finally, we do not even challenge the data collected by Ashraf and Galor: We assume that all of their data are valid and accurate. Instead, we attempt to unambiguously show that even with their own data, Ashraf and Galors (2012) results cannot hold after controlling for a key variable that is missing in their inquiry.
I have not tried to evaluate the details of Tangs reanalysis because I continue to think that Ashraf and Galors paper is essentially an analysis of three data points (sub-Saharan Africa, remote Andean countries and Eurasia). It offered little more than the already-known stylized fact that sub-Saharan African countries are very poor, Amerindian countries are somewhat poor, and countries with Eurasians and their descendants tend to have middle or high incomes.
That said, this new paper by Tang could be useful in that it criticizes Ashraf and Galor on their own terms.
#1: misterwhite To: Justified (#0)
Um, because it's true?
South Africa was more economically successful than other African countries. But when the whites were kicked out, the country went downhill.
misterwhite posted on 2016-04-24 14:21:57 Reply Private Reply
#2: rlk To: Justified (#0)
Quamrul Ashraf and Oded Galor should take courses in biology. The determining factor is not economic speculation, but a matter of simple genetics.
rlk posted on 2016-04-24 14:43:53 Reply Private Reply
#3: jeremiad To: Justified (#0)
jeremiad posted on 2016-04-24 14:52:41 Reply Private Reply
#4: goodnessmarlok To: Justified (#0)
goodnessmarlok posted on 2016-04-24 14:58:34 Reply Private Reply
#5: goodnessmarlok To: misterwhite (#1)
goodnessmarlok posted on 2016-04-24 14:59:41 Reply Private Reply
#6: goodnessmarlok To: rlk (#2)
goodnessmarlok posted on 2016-04-24 15:01:55 Reply Private Reply
#7: goodnessmarlok To: jeremiad (#3)
lmao de lol
goodnessmarlok posted on 2016-04-24 15:02:52 Reply Private Reply
#8: jeremiad To: misterwhite (#1)
jeremiad posted on 2016-04-24 15:06:59 Reply Private Reply
#9: BorisY To: Justified (#0)
sub
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average
up
to
60
in
America
due
to
liberal
brainwashing
indoctrination
it's
below
50
affirmative
action
media
propaganda
has
it
to
infinity
infallibility
love
boris
ps
feet
toes
of
clay
BorisY posted on 2016-04-24 15:11:19 Reply Private Reply
#10: goodnessmarlok To: jeremiad (#8)
>Entitled Dutch people commit genocide and establish stupid colonial laws over there a la colonies of the past in the Americas
>Full of scattered about and poor natives while a foreigner class rules over
Whether you disagree or not it WAS bullshit what they did. Let those people live in "savage" ways as you call it why does it harm you?They aren't harming you so don't give a fuck about it. Simple as that. That's why people can't agree with you.
Funny enough you idiots can't keep your dusty heads out of anything, so that's why you have all these problems coming to your countries tripled with the already internal ones your dumbfuck countries suffer. It's completely your fault.
goodnessmarlok posted on 2016-04-24 15:15:22 Reply Private Reply
#11: A Pole To: Justified (#0)
Why China was the number 1 economy before they met British?
Why Muslims in Spain were rich and Christian Spaniards poor?
A Pole posted on 2016-04-24 15:42:40 Reply Private Reply
#12: jeremiad To: goodnessmarlok (#10)
jeremiad posted on 2016-04-24 16:33:39 Reply Private Reply
#13: sneakypete To: goodnessmarlok (#5)
Just how heavy is that inferiority genes chip on your shoulder?
sneakypete posted on 2016-04-24 16:59:25 Reply Private Reply
#14: goodnessmarlok To: jeremiad (#12)
The oil wealthy nations are not poor, no. Their wealthy is wealthier than ours. The greatest civilizations for the majority of the world has been the East not the West.
goodnessmarlok posted on 2016-04-24 17:01:00 Reply Private Reply
#15: goodnessmarlok To: sneakypete (#13)
R.I.P your genes.
goodnessmarlok posted on 2016-04-24 17:01:59 Reply Private Reply
#16: SOSO To: A Pole, Justified (#11)
It's not where you start but where you finish.
"Why Muslims in Spain were rich and Christian Spaniards poor?
Stronger swords.
"Why China was the number 1 economy before they met British?
Please prove that with credible references - if you can.
"Why Greece and Italy, earlier Egypt, Iraq and Syria were the richest while Skandinavia and Germany were dirt poor?"
And now?
SOSO posted on 2016-04-24 17:04:15 Reply Private Reply
#17: goodnessmarlok To: SOSO (#16)
Just... lol
goodnessmarlok posted on 2016-04-24 17:05:10 Reply Private Reply
#18: SOSO To: A Pole, Justified (#11)
BTW just how genetically diverse was China then?
SOSO posted on 2016-04-24 17:05:53 Reply Private Reply
#19: SOSO To: goodnessmarlok (#17)
And just how genetically diverse is your East?
SOSO posted on 2016-04-24 17:07:05 Reply Private Reply
#20: sneakypete To: A Pole (#11)
They were number 1 in China,for sure. Other than that,they had no trade with anyone before the British came in and took over.
Why Muslims in Spain were rich and Christian Spaniards poor?
Because Muslim clergy didn't object to individual Muslims becoming wealthy,and the Catholic Church wanted the people kept poor so they were easier to control and it was easier for the Church to own all the money and property.
sneakypete posted on 2016-04-24 17:07:59 Reply Private Reply
#21: goodnessmarlok To: SOSO (#19)
It has Berbers, Arabs, Kurds, Persians, Turkics, Dravidians, Aborigines, Monogoloids, Pacific Islanders, Negroids, ect.
You tried it, but you failed.
goodnessmarlok posted on 2016-04-24 17:09:07 Reply Private Reply
#22: SOSO To: goodnessmarlok (#21)
And all of these are ascending? Riiiiight........... I shoot, I score. LMAO.
SOSO posted on 2016-04-24 17:10:43 Reply Private Reply
#23: goodnessmarlok To: sneakypete (#20)
Source: your ass
I know you're very daft sneakypete but come on. lmao.
goodnessmarlok posted on 2016-04-24 17:10:51 Reply Private Reply
#24: SOSO To: goodnessmarlok (#21)
How's that tribalism working out for them? LMAO again.
SOSO posted on 2016-04-24 17:11:50 Reply Private Reply
#25: sneakypete To: goodnessmarlok (#15)
I'm sure that's just one of the fantasies that you and your favorite goat share.
sneakypete posted on 2016-04-24 17:12:03 Reply Private Reply
#26: goodnessmarlok To: SOSO (#22)
It doesn't matter if their home countries are shit. Why bother when there's new better land to conquer? Even the genetics is shifting. And it doesn't have a favor with the native population either.
You shoot and ya missed. As usual. lmao de lol
goodnessmarlok posted on 2016-04-24 17:13:07 Reply Private Reply
#27: goodnessmarlok To: sneakypete (#25)
goodnessmarlok posted on 2016-04-24 17:15:13 Reply Private Reply
#28: Justified To: All (#0)
Religion, property rights, economic systems and more go into why people succeed in life. It seems when life if cheap to people economic systems fail. Over populations produced cheap life. Religion stifles productivity. Over bearing governments take rights away and without the ability to keep what you work for why invest in the future?
There are so many reason why.
Justified posted on 2016-04-24 17:16:45 Reply Private Reply
#29: sneakypete To: goodnessmarlok (#27)
Well,I can't really blame you for feeling insecure and inferior. It's in your genes.
sneakypete posted on 2016-04-24 17:17:08 Reply Private Reply
#30: SOSO To: goodnessmarlok (#26)
Oh but it does matter that they come from shitholes that are of their own making. That is why they are trying to leave and corrupt every place that they try to go. And as for women, since when did rape and forced sex slaves constitute a soft spot.
You reveal your nature,, shit wad and that is why I will always have the last laugh on you and you shit eating asswipe hordes of goat f*ckers.
SOSO posted on 2016-04-24 17:17:22 Reply Private Reply
#31: goodnessmarlok To: SOSO (#24)
Face it bud we will see a Eastern West very soon. It's evident that your people rather write mean things on message boards to people they sheepishly perceive as the "enemy" than go out and actually DO something and protect THEIR women. But you know, they don't. I guess it's god's way. "Inshallah" I suppose.
goodnessmarlok posted on 2016-04-24 17:17:38 Reply Private Reply
#32: goodnessmarlok To: SOSO (#30)
Um no, a lot of European women like the handsome Eastern men. Nice try. Eastern men are better looking and actually act like MEN.
Last laugh? No. Technically the last laugh is with the goat fuckers since their religion and their demographics are winning. Fail.
goodnessmarlok posted on 2016-04-24 17:19:35 Reply Private Reply
#33: SOSO To: Justified, All (#28)
This is the first article that I have seen that challenges the BS meme that diversity always leads to a better society. The facts simply do not support that PC carp.
SOSO posted on 2016-04-24 17:19:41 Reply Private Reply
#34: goodnessmarlok To: sneakypete (#29)
goodnessmarlok posted on 2016-04-24 17:20:26 Reply Private Reply
#35: Justified To: SOSO (#33)
I agree diversity is not always better and can be harm greatly.
Forced diversity is the worst and should never be allowed. In fact I believe our constitution does not allow government to force diversity to happen but who really cares about the constitution.
Justified posted on 2016-04-24 17:23:28 Reply Private Reply
#36: SOSO To: goodnessmarlok (#32)
Who made the Middle East, ex. Israel, a shithole? Outsiders from the West? Geez, Mustafa, you are a laugh a minute. I piss on you with great glee as you and your dogs continue to f*ck camels and eat their shit. If it wasn't for the Western modernity you and your turd cultures would still be eating your own shit and liking it.
SOSO posted on 2016-04-24 17:25:09 Reply Private Reply
#37: SOSO To: Justified (#35)
Don't say that out loud to a DRat.
SOSO posted on 2016-04-24 17:25:53 Reply Private Reply
#38: goodnessmarlok To: SOSO (#36)
Do you mean letting your wives fuck men on camera and then gleefully selling your daughters for other men to masturbate to? What about worshiping material objects and obsessing over celebrities? oh geez, I sure can't wait for Western modernity.
I'd rather live in a shithole in Syria than "Western modernity". Sweden is the most prime example of that and just LOOK at them. LOL
Also you unironically believe the architectures and advances of the East was with Western help. Oh mai gawd.
goodnessmarlok posted on 2016-04-24 17:30:49 Reply Private Reply
#39: goodnessmarlok To: SOSO (#36)
goodnessmarlok posted on 2016-04-24 17:31:42 Reply Private Reply
#40: Justified To: goodnessmarlok, everyone (#38)
I would not waste even one word on this person.
Justified posted on 2016-04-24 17:37:44 Reply Private Reply
#41: goodnessmarlok To: Justified (#40)
goodnessmarlok posted on 2016-04-24 17:45:02 Reply Private Reply
#42: paraclete To: jeremiad (#3)
paraclete posted on 2016-04-24 18:16:37 Reply Private Reply
#43: A Pole To: sneakypete (#20)
China was a major exporter for centuries. Silk, china, tea and several other things to the whole world.
Start with with Silk Road and look at great sea trade to India, Middle East and Europe.
British increased drug imports to China.
A Pole posted on 2016-04-24 18:40:40 Reply Private Reply
#44: A Pole To: sneakypete (#20)
No cookie. Because Muslims were the rulers over the conquered Christians.
A Pole posted on 2016-04-24 18:43:51 Reply Private Reply
#45: A Pole To: SOSO (#36)
Are you talking about Libya?
A Pole posted on 2016-04-24 18:46:10 Reply Private Reply
#46: misterwhite To: jeremiad (#8)
misterwhite posted on 2016-04-24 19:30:25 Reply Private Reply
#47: jeremiad To: paraclete (#42)
jeremiad posted on 2016-04-24 19:31:15 Reply Private Reply
#48: buckeroo To: misterwhite (#46)
That is just one 0bama opin, ain't it?
buckeroo posted on 2016-04-24 19:40:01 Reply Private Reply
#49: rlk To: goodnessmarlok (#6)
Saudi Arabia is wealthy only because because it allowed American engineers and oil companies to install oil wells for a piece of the profits. Beyond that, it has never done anything. Asians representing the Mandarin level of population are, on the average, a little genetically intellectually superior to the average White person. That is why U. S. universities tend to recruit them to become students in the hard advanced basic sciences while minorities in the U. S. cry that it's discrimination. If I want serious conversation, I'll go to a madarin Chinaman rather that the typical American gopplehead. Conversation with the average minority member in America is like speaking to a programmed wind-up toy.
rlk posted on 2016-04-24 19:49:34 Reply Private Reply
#50: sneakypete To: goodnessmarlok (#23)
Don't blame me because you are wrong. I had nothing to do with either your breeding or your education.
sneakypete posted on 2016-04-24 19:54:44 Reply Private Reply
#51: sneakypete To: goodnessmarlok (#27)
Typical lame response,but I suppose you just can't do any better. What next,you going to shout "Yo Mama!"
sneakypete posted on 2016-04-24 19:56:25 Reply Private Reply
#52: rlk To: A Pole (#43)
Plus little things like the thinking of Buddha, Confucious, Lee, and Mencious.
rlk posted on 2016-04-24 19:57:30 Reply Private Reply
#53: sneakypete To: goodnessmarlok (#31)
Yeah,causen Muslims never did that,did they,20 Mule Train Mohammad Boraxo?
sneakypete posted on 2016-04-24 19:58:41 Reply Private Reply
#54: sneakypete To: goodnessmarlok (#32)
Is that why you date them? What are you doing with men,anyhow? Shouldn't you be more traditional,and only have sex fat little boys and pretty goats?
sneakypete posted on 2016-04-24 20:00:42 Reply Private Reply
#55: sneakypete To: goodnessmarlok (#34)
REAL men don't give women poundings.
They don't hump little boys or goats,either.
sneakypete posted on 2016-04-24 20:02:18 Reply Private Reply
#56: sneakypete To: goodnessmarlok (#38)
They had to be. Arabs,since the time of Mohammed,may a diseased camel shit in his mouth, are too inbred to do any actual thinking.
sneakypete posted on 2016-04-24 20:04:40 Reply Private Reply
#57: sneakypete To: A Pole (#43)
And they stopped trading with anyone and shut down to the outside centuries ago. It wasn't until the British came in and started trading that things changed.
sneakypete posted on 2016-04-24 20:06:45 Reply Private Reply
#58: sneakypete To: A Pole (#44)
You DO know there were dirt poor starving Christians living in Spain both before and after the Muslims,right? If anything,the poor had better chances of improving their lives under the Muslims than the Popes.
sneakypete posted on 2016-04-24 20:08:37 Reply Private Reply
#59: jeremiad To: misterwhite (#46)
jeremiad posted on 2016-04-24 21:21:50 Reply Private Reply
#60: paraclete To: Justified (#0)
paraclete posted on 2016-04-24 21:40:05 Reply Private Reply
#61: SOSO To: A Pole (#45)
I am talking about the entire Middle East excluding Israel. Just about all the places in the Middle East that once were really nice places to visit have become what most of the region has always been, a shithole.
SOSO posted on 2016-04-24 21:42:26 Reply Private Reply
#62: SOSO To: goodnessmarlok (#38)
Mustafa , you don't even know the history of your sh*tholes do you?. Porn was not invented in the West.
" Painted sometime in the Ramesside Period (1292-1075 B.C.E.), the fragments abovecalled the Turin Erotic Papyrus because of their discovery in the Egyptian Museum of Turin, Italyonly hint at the frank versions of ancient sex they depict (see a graphic partial reconstruction at the bottom of the postprobably NSFW). The number of sexual positions the papyrus illustratestwelve in allfall somewhere between impressively acrobatic and unnervingly ambitious, one even involving a chariot."
Even Bin Laden had porn when he was killed. Prostitution was not invented in the West. Homosexulaity wasn't invented in the West. Beastiality was not invented in the West.
But I guess your idea of making love to a woman is still to first whack off her clitoris. Heck, in many cases you sheep f*ckers don't even wait for your daughters to start menstruating befer ramming them.
But wait. here's sometime interesting:
"Miner and DeVos (1960) comment that amongst Arab tribal cultures, "Bestiality with goats, sheep, or camels provides another outlet. These practices are not approved but they are recognized as common among boys." Havelock-Ellis [note 52] states "The Arabs, according to Kocher, chiefly practice bestiality with goats, sheep and mares. The Annamites, according to Mondiere, commonly employ sows and (more especially the young women) dogs." Historical And Cultural Perspectives On Zoophilia"
Yeah, the rest of the women around the world really go ape shit over guys that f*ck animals. Mustafa, LMAO at you.
"I'd rather live in a shithole in Syria than "Western modernity"."
Great, stay there and pound sand for the rest of your shit eating life.
"Also you unironically believe the architectures and advances of the East was with Western help."
Quite the contrary. The East had a long head start on the West in developing art and science. You shit eaters decided that you would rather f*ck camels and torture women instead of elevating yourself. The demise of your ancient civilizations is a grand testimony to how f*cked up you people are.
SOSO posted on 2016-04-24 22:13:13 Reply Private Reply
#63: goodnessmarlok To: SOSO (#62)
goodnessmarlok posted on 2016-04-24 23:26:59 Reply Private Reply
#64: SOSO To: goodnessmarlok (#63)
Well if you can't read have your wife read it to you. Oh, sorry, I forgot you goat f*ckers don't educate your women.
SOSO posted on 2016-04-24 23:53:45 Reply Private Reply
#65: misterwhite To: jeremiad (#59)
Apartheid means live apart ... by force.
misterwhite posted on 2016-04-25 09:15:50 Reply Private Reply
#66: misterwhite To: buckeroo (#48)
Jeepers for orange, ain't it?
misterwhite posted on 2016-04-25 09:20:03 Reply Private Reply
#67: Justified To: paraclete (#60)
There always seems to be an excuse why Africa is so crappy a place to live. Logically speaking you would have to figure it has something to do with the people. Lets face it every nations under the sun has been raped, enslaved and murdered by others. Each nation had to stand up on its own and fight its way out.
Justified posted on 2016-04-25 09:24:43 Reply Private Reply
#68: jeremiad To: misterwhite (#65)
jeremiad posted on 2016-04-25 16:11:11 Reply Private Reply
#69: misterwhite To: jeremiad (#68)
I'm saying that South Africa, as a country, was better off with the whites in charge.
misterwhite posted on 2016-04-25 17:01:16 Reply Private Reply
#70: jeremiad To: misterwhite (#69)
jeremiad posted on 2016-04-25 19:11:08 Reply Private Reply
#71: paraclete To: misterwhite (#65)
america should try it, it might solve some problems, living together by force hasn't solved any problems
paraclete posted on 2016-04-25 19:22:34 Reply Private Reply