Genetic distance between countries’ populations has been shown to proxy cross-country differences in cultures and preferences. In an unbalanced panel of 133 countries from 1970 to 2012, the study finds that higher genetic distance between two countries decreases their probability of having a trade agreement, even when controlling for geographic distance and other controls. The impact of cultural differences proxied by genetic distance is persistent over time and economically significant: While increasing the geographic distance between two countries by 1% decreases the probability of a regional trade agreement by 0.11% points, increasing their genetic distance by 1% decreases the probability by 0.06% points.

事实证明，国家人口之间的遗传距离可以弥补跨国文化和偏好上的差异。在1970年至2012年间由133个国家组成的不平衡小组中，研究发现，即使在控制地理距离和其他控制措施的情况下，两个国家之间较高的遗传距离也会降低它们达成贸易协定的可能性。遗传距离所代表的文化差异的影响随着时间的流逝而持续存在，并且具有重大的经济意义：虽然将两国之间的地理距离增加1％，会使区域贸易协定的可能性降低0.11％，而将其遗传距离增加1％，则导致机率降低了0.06％。