The Entrepreneurial Mind

Ben Cunningham sent along a post to a science blog called Gene Expression, which has a post on the genetic nature of the entrepreneurial spirit. It seems that a bit of a debate is raging about a genetic predisposition to being capitalistic.

In a recent paper written by economist Greg Clark, he made the following argument:

Before 1800 all societies, including England, were Malthusian. The average man or woman had 2 surviving children. Such societies were also Darwinian. Some reproductively successful groups produced more than 2 surviving children, increasing their share of the population, while other groups produced less, so that their share declined. But unusually in England, this selection for men was based on economic success from at least 1250, not success in violence as in some other pre-industrial societies. The richest male testators left twice as many children as the poorest. Consequently the modern population of the English is largely descended from the economic upper classes of the middle ages. At the same time, from 1150 to 1800 in England there are clear signs of changes in average economic preferences towards more "capitalist" attitudes. The highly capitalistic nature of English society by 1800 -- individualism, low time preference rates, long work hours, high levels of human capital -- may thus stem from the nature of the Darwinian struggle in a very stable agrarian society in the long run up to the Industrial Revolution. The triumph of capitalism in the modern world thus may lie as much in our genes as in ideology or rationality.

Some have argued that Clark's evidence does not support hie conclusions, including Tyler Cowen at this post found at Marginal Revolution.

I come down strongly on the side of nurture on this one. I believe that there are cultural norms that support entrepreneurial behavior and a capitalistic attitude, and there are even stronger links to family history of entrepreneurship. This all comes from environmental experiences. To say this is encoded in our genome is a leap of logic I just don't see any evidence to support.