Henrich resolves this dispute by convincing me that “lower-quality workers” means workers whose culture and psychology are poorly adapted to most modern jobs.
I don’t understand how that resolves the dispute. If their culture and psychology are poorly adapted to most modern jobs, then why do their wages jump from $1 a day to $40 a day? Presumably their individual culture and psychology are only minimally changed by moving to the West.
To be clear, I think Clark / Henrich are right and Caplan is wrong, here, but if you found Caplan’s objection compelling before, I think you should still find it compelling now (or haven’t adequately explained how you were convinced).
I think they both have good points, and I previously had some trouble reconciling them.
I expect that a modest fraction of the relevant culture can be altered within months by things such as co-worker influences that promote punctuality, obedience to non-kin bosses, and maybe even a slight change in honesty. There are few contexts other than immigration in which peer effects change drastically enough have those effects.
I previously thought that Clark’s arguments implied that at least 50% of the labor quality difference was due to genes. Henrich convinced me to lower that estimate to less than 25%, partly by seeing a better model of environmental factors than I’d previously comparing it to. I guess I exaggerated when I said that resolves the disagreement, but I now see a clearer middle ground.
Farewell to Alms doesn’t have a clear argument for genetic effects. It does indicate that the effects tend to be passed from parents to children, but he didn’t really try to rule out culture in that book. Clark may make stronger arguments for genetic effects in The Son Also Rises, but I haven’t read that.
Caplan overstates his point. The evidence is complicated by selection effects (the people who migrate are better workers, and also more open to adopting a new culture), and by location effects (taxi drivers and maids in San Francisco create more value than they would performing the same actions in a low-wage country). But there’s still some genuine change happening with migration that rarely happens when Westerners try to export Western productivity to third world countries.
I don’t understand how that resolves the dispute. If their culture and psychology are poorly adapted to most modern jobs, then why do their wages jump from $1 a day to $40 a day? Presumably their individual culture and psychology are only minimally changed by moving to the West.
To be clear, I think Clark / Henrich are right and Caplan is wrong, here, but if you found Caplan’s objection compelling before, I think you should still find it compelling now (or haven’t adequately explained how you were convinced).
I think they both have good points, and I previously had some trouble reconciling them.
I expect that a modest fraction of the relevant culture can be altered within months by things such as co-worker influences that promote punctuality, obedience to non-kin bosses, and maybe even a slight change in honesty. There are few contexts other than immigration in which peer effects change drastically enough have those effects.
I previously thought that Clark’s arguments implied that at least 50% of the labor quality difference was due to genes. Henrich convinced me to lower that estimate to less than 25%, partly by seeing a better model of environmental factors than I’d previously comparing it to. I guess I exaggerated when I said that resolves the disagreement, but I now see a clearer middle ground.
Farewell to Alms doesn’t have a clear argument for genetic effects. It does indicate that the effects tend to be passed from parents to children, but he didn’t really try to rule out culture in that book. Clark may make stronger arguments for genetic effects in The Son Also Rises, but I haven’t read that.
Caplan overstates his point. The evidence is complicated by selection effects (the people who migrate are better workers, and also more open to adopting a new culture), and by location effects (taxi drivers and maids in San Francisco create more value than they would performing the same actions in a low-wage country). But there’s still some genuine change happening with migration that rarely happens when Westerners try to export Western productivity to third world countries.