Trade or Die
It wasn’t dinosaurs, global warming, or meteor strikes that finished off the Neanderthals. No, according to several economists, it was something far more sinister — protectionism. At least, that’s the latest theory to explain the sudden extinction of Neanderthals, who existed as a species for longer than humans have been on Earth. Writing in the ...
It wasn't dinosaurs, global warming, or meteor strikes that finished off the Neanderthals. No, according to several economists, it was something far more sinister -- protectionism. At least, that's the latest theory to explain the sudden extinction of Neanderthals, who existed as a species for longer than humans have been on Earth. Writing in the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, one Dutch and two American economists argue that "economics might have been the only thing going for [humans] in those early days."
It wasn’t dinosaurs, global warming, or meteor strikes that finished off the Neanderthals. No, according to several economists, it was something far more sinister — protectionism. At least, that’s the latest theory to explain the sudden extinction of Neanderthals, who existed as a species for longer than humans have been on Earth. Writing in the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, one Dutch and two American economists argue that "economics might have been the only thing going for [humans] in those early days."
Archeological evidence suggests that early modern people were biologically inferior to Neanderthals: Humans were weaker, slower, and far less adept at either hunting or gathering. So what accounts for their success in the face of a more powerful species? Free trade, the economists say. "What trade does is allow the less skilled to increase their resources," says Rick Horan, a coauthor of the paper and a professor at Michigan State University. "Neanderthals didn’t trade, and so [they] couldn’t do this and that’s why they died out."
Not everyone is convinced. Erik Trinkaus, a professor of anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis, describes the theory as "rubbish." He laments that it is one of those ideas that presumes "Neanderthals were sitting around being stupid, waiting to become extinct." Free traders are undeterred. Daniel Drezner, a political scientist at the University of Chicago, says that the theory "could replace the Smoot–Hawley tariff causing the Great Depression as the strongest argument for free trade." Either way, it may offer one more reason why a country’s trade policy must be a thing of evolution.
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