| 1. |
- Damgaard, P. D., et al.
(author)
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137 ancient human genomes from across the Eurasian steppes
- 2018
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In: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 557:7705, s. 369-374
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- For thousands of years the Eurasian steppes have been a centre of human migrations and cultural change. Here we sequence the genomes of 137 ancient humans (about 1x average coverage), covering a period of 4,000 years, to understand the population history of the Eurasian steppes after the Bronze Age migrations. We find that the genetics of the Scythian groups that dominated the Eurasian steppes throughout the Iron Age were highly structured, with diverse origins comprising Late Bronze Age herders, European farmers and southern Siberian hunter-gatherers. Later, Scythians admixed with the eastern steppe nomads who formed the Xiongnu confederations, and moved westward in about the second or third century bc, forming the Hun traditions in the fourthfifth century ad, and carrying with them plague that was basal to the Justinian plague. These nomads were further admixed with East Asian groups during several short-term khanates in the Medieval period. These historical events transformed the Eurasian steppes from being inhabited by Indo-European speakers of largely West Eurasian ancestry to the mostly Turkic-speaking groups of the present day, who are primarily of East Asian ancestry.
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| 2. |
- Akay, Alpaslan, 1975, et al.
(author)
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Ethnic diversity and well-being
- 2017
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In: Journal of Population Economics. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0933-1433 .- 1432-1475. ; 30:1, s. 265-306
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper investigates how ethnic diversity, measured by immigrants' nationalities, influences the well-being of the host country. Using panel data from Germany from 1998 to 2012, we find a positive effect of ethnic diversity on the well-being of German natives. Our finding is robust to alternative definitions of ethnic diversity and to the non-random selection of natives and immigrants into regions. The positive effect of ethnic diversity is stronger for immigrant groups that are culturally and economically closer to Germany. Consistent with this result, we document the existence of two mechanisms explaining the influence of ethnic diversity on well-being: productivity-as captured by immigrants' skills and assimilation-and social capital-particularly in relation to the creation of a multicultural environment.
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| 3. |
- Akay, Alpaslan, 1975, et al.
(author)
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Global terror, well-being and political attitudes
- 2020
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In: European Economic Review. - : Elsevier BV. - 0014-2921. ; 123
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- A growing literature examines the impact of terror on subjective well-being, focusing mainly on specific events and their local consequences. In the present paper, we study the effect of global terror intensity on the life satisfaction of Western citizens. We leverage panel datasets for six countries that we combine with daily information on all the terror attacks in the world over 20 years. Terror diminishes individual subjective well-being globally and continually. Using high frequency data over the long-run also allows us to provide a rich heterogeneity analysis on the relevant dimensions of terror. The effect is particularly strong for events broadcasted on Western television, when respondents are physically or genetically close to the victims, or for individuals who feel more exposed (e.g. living in urban areas). For a subset of countries, we also study the impact of terror on political attitudes and find that global terror significantly increases the intention to vote for conservative parties. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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| 4. |
- Akay, Alpaslan, 1975, et al.
(author)
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The impact of immigration on the well-being of natives
- 2014
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In: Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization. - : Elsevier BV. - 0167-2681. ; 103, s. 72-92
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Combining data from the German Socio-Economic Panel for 1998-2009 with local labor market information, this is the first paper to investigate how the spatial concentration of immigrants affects the life satisfaction of the native Germans. Our results show a positive and robust effect of immigration on natives' well-being, which is not driven by local labor market characteristics. Immigration has only a weak impact on the subjective well-being of immigrant groups, meanwhile. We also examine potential threats to causality and conclude that our findings are not driven by selectivity and reverse causality. Specifically, natives are not crowded out by immigrants and the sorting of immigrants to regions with higher native happiness is negligible. We further find that the positive effect of immigration on natives' life satisfaction is a function of the assimilation of immigrants in the region. Immigration's well-being effect is higher in regions with intermediate assimilation levels and is essentially zero in regions with no or complete assimilation. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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