The persistent effects of novelty-seeking traits on comparative economic development

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Goeren, Erkan
• 署名单位: Carl von Ossietzky Universitat Oldenburg
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-3878
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2016.12.009
• 发表日期: 2017
• 页码: 112-126
• 关键词: Novelty-seeking behavior; Entrepreneurial traits; Economic development; Natural selection; biogeography; DRD4

摘要

The issue of novelty-seeking traits have been related to important economic attitudes such as risk-taking, entrepreneurial, and explorative behaviors that foster technological progress and, thus, economic development. However, numerous molecular genetic studies have shown that novelty-seeking bearing individuals are prone to certain psychological disadvantages such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), leading to occupational and educational difficulties in modern societies. Using a recent compilation of DRD4 exon III allele frequencies a particular gene variant that population geneticists have found to be sometimes associated with the human phenotype of novelty-seeking behavior-this paper advances a new country-level measure on the prevalence of novelty-seeking traits for a large number of countries worldwide. The results suggest a stable non monotonic inverted U-shaped relationship between the country-level DRD4 exon III allele frequency measure and economic development. This finding is suggestive of the potential benefits and costs of novelty-seeking traits for the aggregate economy.