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Solar Radiation, IQ and Regional Disparities in Italy

Vittorio Daniele

10.46469/mq.2018.58.4.9

Published: 2018/06/01

Abstract

Contrary to Leon & Antonelli-Ponti’s claim that regional socio-economic and cognitive differences between Italian provinces are best explained by differences in UV radiation, it is argued that (1) these differences are of rather recent origin, dating to the period of industrialization in the 19th and 20th centuries; and (2) regional differences in Europe today are better explained by distance from the continent’s economic center of gravity in North-Western Europe. Neither UV radiation theory nor Lynn’s genetic theory are required to explain economic differentials in modern Europe.

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