Genetic diversity and economic development

Linking genetic diversity and economic development by Ashraf and Galor is a paper that illustrates perfectly what is promising as well as utterly wrong with the current economics attempt to link evolution and modern societies. The promising bit is that a paper that cites the Out of Africa hypothesis and uses genetic variation as a factor gets into AER, one of the leading economics journals. Sadly, however, the authors suggest a mechanism (section 2 on pages 10-11) that is naive to the extent that it annuls the otherwise impressive econometrics. Yet, their empirical finding is interesting. Here is the link: http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Economics/Papers/2010/2010-7_paper.pdf