Black Man’s Burden: Measured Philanthropy in the British Empire, 1880-1913

Olivier Accominotti, Marc Flandreau, Riad Rezzik and Frédéric Zumer

No 6811, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: Ferguson and Schularick (2006) recently provided a measure of the effect of Empire subjection on borrowing countries’ interest rates. They find this effect to be large and significant, ranging between 80 to 180 basis points. We argue that their methodology is inadequate and that their estimates are biased. The reason is that Empire subjection did not affect borrowing conditions at the margin, as they assume, but structurally. We also develop a new approach of the incidence of colonial rule on market access. It suggests that the benefits of Empire were unevenly distributed. It shows that the main incidence of colonial rule was to create financial incentives to adopt development policies that encouraged government spending.

Keywords: bond spreads; credibility; development; empire; institutions; legal frameworks (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G12 N20 O16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his
Date: 2008-04

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