Seminar Cultural Doorways in the Barriers to Development Econometrics and Applied Micro Seminar Add to calendar 2024-02-19 11:00 2024-02-19 12:15 Europe/Rome Cultural Doorways in the Barriers to Development Conference Room Villa La Fonte YYYY-MM-DD Print Share: Share on Facebook Share on BlueSky Share on X Share on LinkedIn Send by email Scheduled dates Feb 19 2024 11:00 - 12:15 CET Conference Room, Villa La Fonte Organised by Department of Economics In this seminar, Francesco Russo (Università di Napoli Federico II) will present the paper "Cultural Doorways in the Barriers to Development." We develop two new indexes of cultural similarity among ethnic groups based on orally transmitted narratives, that measure the exchange of cultural traits among populations as preserved in their oral traditions.We find that they both explain currently observed differences in income per capita, even after controlling for measures of geo-climatic, historical, religious and linguistic barriers, and we propose an empirical exploration of the mechanisms. These findings lend support to the role of knowledge, information and technological transfers across people in the diffusion of development.