This study attempts to shed light on long-term cultural barriers to strengthening collective action in COVID-19 vaccination. I propose that rugged individualism, characterized by emphasis on self-reliance and strong antipathy to government intervention, is linked to a greater prevalence of...

This paper examines the extent to which the quality of institutions, measured by the Economic Freedom of the World index, helps shape cross-country differences in economic complexity. To this end, I employ the intensity of ultraviolet radiation (UV-R) to isolate an exogenous source of variation...

This article establishes empirically that a persistent culture of “rugged individualism”, captured by exposure to the American westward-moving frontier from 1790 to 1890, undermines pro-climate perceptions, environmental performance, and climate change preparedness across counties in the...

This paper hypothesizes and establishes empirically that climate change policies spread more easily between closely related countries, leading to worldwide differences in climate change policy performance. Exploiting variations across countries, the study provides evidence that genetic distance...