Difusão internacional de inovações

Long-Term Barriers to the International Diffusion of Innovations∗
Enrico Spolaore
Tufts University, NBER and CESIfo
Romain Wacziarg
UCLA, NBER and CEPR
July 2011
Abstract
We document an empirical relationship between the cross-country adoption of technologies
and the degree of long-term historical relatedness between human populations. Historical relatedness
is measured using genetic distance, a measure of the time since two populations’ last
common ancestors. We find that the measure of human relatedness that is relevant to explain
international technology diffusion is genetic distance relative to the world technological frontier
(“relative frontier distance”). This evidence is consistent with long-term historical relatedness
acting as a barrier to technology adoption: societies that are more distant from the technological
frontier tend to face higher imitation costs. The results can help explain current differences in
total factor productivity and income per capita across countries.
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