BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 METHOD:PUBLISH PRODID:-//Telerik Inc.//Sitefinity CMS 15.1//EN BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Eastern Standard Time BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20251102T020000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=1SU;BYHOUR=2;BYMINUTE=0;BYMONTH=11 TZNAME:Eastern Standard Time TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20250301T020000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=2SU;BYHOUR=2;BYMINUTE=0;BYMONTH=3 TZNAME:Eastern Daylight Time TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DESCRIPTION:Moynihan Institute of Global AffairsTrade\, Development and Pol itical EconomypresentNathan NunnFrederic E. Abbe Professor of EconomicsHar vard University We examine a determinant of cultural persistence that has emerged from a class of models in evolutionary anthropology: the similarit y of the environment across generations. Within these models\, when the en vironment is more similar across generations\, the traits that have evolve d up to the previous generation are more likely to be optimal for the curr ent generation. In equilibrium\, a greater value is placed on tradition an d there is greater cultural persistence. We test this hypothesis by measur ing the variability of different climatic measures across 20-year generati ons from 500–1900. The first part of our analysis uses climate data with g lobal coverage to examine variation across countries\, ethnic groups\, and the descendants of immigrants. We find that populations with ancestors wh o lived in environments with more cross-generational instability place les s importance in maintaining tradition today and they also exhibit less cul tural persistence over time. The second part of our analysis examines the persistence of tradition among indigenous populations from the United Stat es and Canada. The more-narrow geographic coverage allows us to use higher quality climate data that are available at a much finer spatial and tempo ral resolution. We show that our findings are robust to controlling for an nual variability\, and to the use of an alternative instability measure th at considers the cross-generational instability of the second moment (rath er than the first moment) of climate.Nathan Nunn is Frederic E. Abbe Profe ssor of Economics at Harvard University. Professor Nunn was born in Canada \, where he received his PhD from the University of Toronto in 2005. Profe ssor Nunn’s primary research interests are in economic history\, economic development\, cultural economics\, political economy and international tra de. He is an NBER Faculty Research Fellow\, a Research Fellow at BREAD\, a nd a Faculty Associate at Harvard's Weatherhead Center for International A ffairs (WCFIA). He is currently a co-editor of the Journal of Development Economics. \; For more information\,\ncontact Devashish Mitra\, dmitra @syr.eduSponsored by:\nMoynihan Institute of Global Affairs\, Trade\, Deve lopment and Political Economy Series DTEND:20180924T220000Z DTSTAMP:20260515T040156Z DTSTART:20180924T200000Z LOCATION: SEQUENCE:0 SUMMARY:Understanding Cultural Persistence UID:RFCALITEM639144001168956870 X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:

Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs

Trade\, Development and Political Economy


present


Nathan Nunn

Frederic E. Abbe Professor of Economics

Harvard University



We examine a d eterminant of cultural persistence that has emerged from a class of models in evolutionary anthropology: the similarity of the environment across ge nerations. Within these models\, when the environment is more similar acro ss generations\, the traits that have evolved up to the previous generatio n are more likely to be optimal for the current generation. In equilibrium \, a greater value is placed on tradition and there is greater cultural pe rsistence. We test this hypothesis by measuring the variability of differe nt climatic measures across 20-year generations from 500–1900. The first p art of our analysis uses climate data with global coverage to examine vari ation across countries\, ethnic groups\, and the descendants of immigrants . We find that populations with ancestors who lived in environments with m ore cross-generational instability place less importance in maintaining tr adition today and they also exhibit less cultural persistence over time. T he second part of our analysis examines the persistence of tradition among indigenous populations from the United States and Canada. The more-narrow geographic coverage allows us to use higher quality climate data that are available at a much finer spatial and temporal resolution. We show that o ur findings are robust to controlling for annual variability\, and to the use of an alternative instability measure that considers the cross-generat ional instability of the second moment (rather than the first moment) of c limate.


Nathan Nunn is Frederic E. Abbe Professor of Economic s at Harvard University. Professor Nunn was born in Canada\, where he rece ived his PhD from the University of Toronto in 2005. Professor Nunn’s prim ary research interests are in economic history\, economic development\, cu ltural economics\, political economy and international trade. He is an NBE R Faculty Research Fellow\, a Research Fellow at BREAD\, and a Faculty Ass ociate at Harvard's Weatherhead Center for International Affairs (WCFIA). He is currently a co-editor of the Journal of Development Economics. \ ;


For more information\,\ncontact Devashish Mitra\, d mitra@syr.edu


Sponsored by:\nMoynihan Institute of Gl obal Affairs\, Trade\, Development and Political Economy Series

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