David Hugh-Jones

I'm a social scientist. My interests include culture, social norms, social genomics and my dog Roly.

My book Wyclif's Dust: Western Cultures from the Printing Press to the Present is out now. Read more.

Working Papers

Trading Social Status for Genetics in Marriage Markets: Evidence from UK Biobank (with Abdel Abdellaoui, Oana Borcan, Pierre Chiappori, Fartein Ask Torvik & Eivind Ystrøm). Source code.

Under social-genetic assortative mating (SGAM), socio-economic status (SES) and genetically inherited traits are both assets in marriage markets, become associated in spouse pairs, and are passed together to future generations. This gives a new explanation for persistent intergenerational inequality and the “genes-SES gradient” – observed genetic differences between high- and low-SES people. We model SGAM and test for it in two large surveys from Great Britain and Norway. Spouses of earlier-born siblings have genetics predicting more education. This effect is mediated by individuals’ own education and income. Under SGAM, shocks to SES are reflected in the DNA of subsequent generations, and the distribution of genetic variants in society is endogenous to economic institutions.

Technology of Cultural Transmission I: The Printing Press (with Mich Tvede)

Existing theories of the effects of the printing press treat it as speeding up the transmission of technical knowledge. This cannot explain why a large proportion of both manuscripts and early printed books was religious. We argue that books transmit prudential and moral rules as well as technical information. These culturally transmitted rules provide a foundation for economic rationality, and solve problems of trust in large markets. In Europe, cheaper book production stimulated not only scientific progress, but also new forms of religion, which used book reading to inculcate rules appropriate to the emerging modern economy. We model the effect of the printing press on economic growth. Initially religious works dominate, but as the stock of technical knowledge grows, the proportion of technical works increases.

Publications

Natural Selection Across Three Generations of Americans (with Tobias Edwards). 2024. Accepted in Behavior Genetics.
Where do fairness preferences come from? Norm transmission in a teen friendship network (with Jinnie Ooi). 2023. European Economic Review. Preprint.
Human Capital Mediates Natural Selection in Contemporary Humans (with Abdel Abdellaoui). 2022. Behavior Genetics. Source code.

Britons are evolving to be poorer and less educated (Daily Telegraph)

Genetic correlates of social stratification in Great Britain (with Abdel Abdellaoui, Kathryn E Kemper, Yan Holtz, Michel G Nivard, Laura Veul, Loic Yengo, Brendan P Zietsch, Timothy M Frayling, Naomi Wray, Jian Yang, Karin JH Verweij, and Peter M Visscher). 2019. Nature Human Behaviour. Preprint.

Migrants from coalfields take DNA as well as talent with them (The Economist)

Brain drain is carrying our clever genes south (The Times)

British industrial regions suffer ‘gene drain’ with the healthier and more academically gifted moving away (Daily Telegraph)

Inequality now extends to people’s DNA (The Conversation)

True Lies: Comment on Garbarino, Slonim and Villeval (2018). 2019. Journal of the Economic Science Association. Source code. R package.
Humans reciprocate by discriminating against group peers (with Itay Ron and Ro'i Zultan). 2019. Evolution and Human Behavior.
Signaling by signature: The weight of international opinion and ratification of treaties by domestic veto players (with Hugh Ward and Karolina Milewicz). 2018. Political Science Research and Methods.
Intergroup revenge: a laboratory experiment (with Martin Leroch). 2017. Homo Economicus.
The logic of costly punishment reversed: expropriation of free-riders and outsiders (with Carlo Perroni). 2017. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization.
Assortative mating on educational attainment leads to genetic spousal resemblance for polygenic scores (with Karen Verweij, Beate St Pourcain and Abdel Abdellaoui). 2016. Intelligence.
Honesty, beliefs about honesty and economic growth in 15 countries. 2016. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 127: 99–114.
An experimental study on the incentives of the probabilistic serial mechanism (with Morimitsu Kurino and Christoph Vanberg). 2014. Games and Economic Behavior 87: 367–380.
Why do crises go to waste? Fiscal austerity and public service reform. 2014. Public choice 158(1-2): 209-220.
Reputation and Cooperation in Defense (with Ro'i Zultan). 2013. Journal of Conflict Resolution 57(2): 327-355
Anonymous Rituals (with David Reinstein). 2012. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 81(2): 478-489.
Motivations behind intergroup conflict: an experimental study of Greek students after the 2008 riots (with Alexia Katsanidou and Gerhard Riener). 2011. International Journal of Conflict and Violence 5:2.
Explaining Institutional Change: Why Elected Politicians Implement Direct Democracy. 2011. In Creative Crises of Democracy, eds. de Jong and Gijsenbergh, Brussels: Peter Lang.
Comment on David Sanders et al., 'Simulating the Effects of the Alternative Vote in the 2010 UK General Election'. 2011. Parliamentary Affairs 64:4.
Constitutions and Policy Comparisons. 2009. Journal of Theoretical Politics 21(1): 25-61.
Sophisticated Voting on Competing Ballot Measures: Spatial Theory and Evidence. 2010. British Journal of Political Science 40(2): 399-418.