"Oded Galor, Brown University";"Department of Economics";"2026-06-24";"14:00";"2026-06-24";"15:00";"CSS, Øster Farimagsgade 5, (lokale 26.2.21), 1353 Kbh K";"""The Cultural Roots of the Wealth of Nations"". Seminar arranged by the Department of Economics";"""The Cultural Roots of the Wealth of Nations"" Abstract What gave rise to the mosaic of cultural expressions across the globe? Why are some societies more culturally diverse than others? What determined societal adaptive capacity to novel environments? This research develops a unified theory of cultural evolution, characterizing the fundamental forces that have governed cultural change over the course of human existence. Cultural dynamics arise from the interaction between adaptation-based vertical transmission, horizontal diffusion, and fitness-based evolutionary selection. The theory generates novel hypotheses about the ancestral environments that shaped the global mosaic of cultural expressions, gave rise to cross-societal variation in cultural diversity, and influenced societal adaptive capacity. Drawing on novel measures of cultural diversity spanning folkloric and musical traditions among indigenous ethnic groups, as well as norms, values, and attitudes in modern societies, the empirical analysis lends credence to the central predictions of the theory. Contact person: Pablo Selaya and Marc Patrick Brag Klemp"