[Journals]: Do Our Genes Make Us Poor? Anthropologists refute the controversial claim that economic development is biologically determined

Anthropologists refute the controversial claim that economic development is biologically determined

Source Contact: Jade d’Alpoim Guedes / jguedes@fas.harvard.edu


The authors of a new Current Anthropology forum paper refute the findings of a forthcoming paper by Ashraf and Galor in the American Economic Review. In their study, Ashraf and Galor argue that there are strong links between population genetic diversity and the per-capita income of nation states, even after accounting for factors like geography and land productivity. They further contend that the United States, Europe, and Asia are affluent because they have optimal genetic diversity, while developing nations in Africa and the Americas are impoverished because they have either too much or too little genetic diversity.




The authors of the critique demonstrate that Ashraf and Galor’s analyses rely on flawed data and a naïve understanding of genetics, while also ignoring relevant findings in anthropology and related fields on the subject of human evolution, cooperation, and innovation.


In light of the fact that governments look to social science research to inform policy decisions, the authors of the critique call for social scientists in the emerging field of “genoeconomics” to adhere to a higher burden of evidence when making provocative assertions capable, among other possible consequences, of placing vulnerable populations at greater risk and reinforcing various forms of casual and institutionalized prejudice.





d’Alpoim Guedes, Jade; Bestor, Theodore; et. al. “Is Poverty in Our Genes? A Critique of Ashraf and Galor” Current Anthropology 53:7. February 2013.







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