Ancestral Inequality and Preferences for Redistribution

Abstract

Using a combination of individual-level, bioclimatic, ethnographic, and archaeological data, we investigate the ancient origins of cross-country differences in preferences for redistribution. Our hypothesis is that contemporary attitudes toward redistribution originate from ancestral levels of inequality, which are the result of adaptive responses of pre-Neolithic hunter-gatherer societies to seasonal food shortage determined by the seasonality of the wild progenitors of domesticated crops. Employing contemporary survey data and an epidemiological approach, we first show that migrants originating from countries with higher ancestral inequality exhibit lower support for redistribution, and we establish that this relationship is driven by the level of crop seasonality in the migrants’ origin countries. Next, using data from premodern societies, we show that crop seasonality induces food storage practices, which in turn lead to inequality. The positive effect of food storage on inequality is corroborated by data from archaeological sites. Finally, using data from preindustrial polities, we uncover that the mechanism linking food storage to redistributive preferences is represented by the positive influence of the former on tolerance for inequality.