War and Relatedness / Enrico Spolaore, Romain Wacziarg.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Spolaore, Enrico.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Wacziarg, Romain.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w15095.

NBER working paper series no. w15095

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2009.

Summary:

We develop a theory of interstate conflict in which the degree of genealogical relatedness between populations has a positive effect on their conflict propensities because more closely related populations, on average, tend to interact more and develop more disputes over sets of common issues. We examine the empirical relationship between the occurrence of interstate conflicts and the degree of relatedness between countries, showing that populations that are genetically closer are more prone to go to war with each other, even after controlling for a wide set of measures of geographic distance and other factors that affect conflict, including measures of trade and democracy.

Notes:

Print version record

June 2009.