全球智库信息集成服务系统(G2TT): DP13437 Bite and Divide: Malaria and Ethnolinguistic Diversity

G2TT

来源类型	Discussion paper
规范类型	论文
来源ID	DP13437
	DP13437 Bite and Divide: Malaria and Ethnolinguistic Diversity
	Matteo Cervellati; Giorgio Chiovelli; Elena Esposito
发表日期	2019-01-09
出版年	2019
语种	英语
摘要	We investigate the epidemiological origins of ethnic diversity and its persistence. First, we conceptualize the role of malaria for the incentives to voluntary isolation in a Malthusian environment. The theory predicts that interactions in multiple geographically clustered groups with high sexual endogamy allowed limiting disease prevalence and increasing group fitness in pre-modern populations exposed to malaria. Second, using disaggregate level data, we document the hitherto unexplored and robust role of malaria for pre-colonial, historical and contemporaneous ethnic diversity in Africa. Third, falsification tests based on malaria epidemiology and history further allow us to validate the specific predictions of the model. No effect can be detected for other placebo vector-borne diseases. Malaria is a main driver of pre-colonial ethnic diversity in Africa but not in the Americas, where the pathogen was absent before European colonization. Fourth, the effect of ancestral malaria on endogamic cultures is the main predicted channel for the persistence of African ethnicities. Exploiting within village variation across 18 African countries, we find that ancestral malaria, but not malaria today, still affects the differential persistence of ethnicities through its legacy of active endogamic cultures.
主题	Macroeconomics and Growth
关键词	Malthusian theory Ethnic groups Cultural and genetic selection Malaria Endogamy African growth
URL	https://cepr.org/publications/dp13437
来源智库	Centre for Economic Policy Research (United Kingdom)
资源类型	智库出版物
条目标识符	http://119.78.100.153/handle/2XGU8XDN/542252
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Matteo Cervellati,Giorgio Chiovelli,Elena Esposito. DP13437 Bite and Divide: Malaria and Ethnolinguistic Diversity. 2019.