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History and cultural evolution: measuring the relationship through the Wikipedia network

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 March 2024

Matthew J. Histen Open the ORCID record for Matthew J. Histen [Opens in a new window]
Matthew J. Histen*
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, California State University, Northridge, Northridge, CA, USA
*
Email: matthew.histen@csun.edu
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Abstract

Even at long time horizons, modern outcomes are in some sense bounded by history. Culture shapes how people interact and as it propagates across generations, groups with more common ancestors face less frictions to cooperation. This, in turn, affects institutional and technological diffusion, implying a society's history plays a crucial role in the causes of sustained long-run economic growth. To test this, we follow other studies by proxying for historical effects with genetic relatedness, which yields a temporal proportionality of shared common ancestry. Measuring cultural traits are more challenging. We develop a new systematic measure through network analysis of Wikipedia. Connectivity statistics over the encyclopaedia's hyperlink-directed network captures unique features of cultural relatedness. Further, as we index pages, we can coarsen the network into specific topics. The results show how history correlates broadly over a range of cultural factors. Differences across the coarsened networks demonstrate not simply that history matters, but where it matters less.

Keywords

cultural transmissioneconomic historyinformal institutionsnetwork analysistechnological diffusion

JEL classification

O57: Comparative Studies of Countries O47: Empirical Studies of Economic Growth • Aggregate Productivity • Cross-Country Output Convergence Z1: Cultural Economics • Economic Sociology • Economic Anthropology F14: Empirical Studies of Trade O33: Technological Change: Choices and Consequences • Diffusion Processes
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Institutional Economics , Volume 20 , 2024 , e18
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Millennium Economics Ltd.

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