The Long-Term Effects of Africa's Slave Trades

Nathan Nunn ()

No 13367, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Can part of Africa's current underdevelopment be explained by its slave trades? To explore this question, I use data from shipping records and historical documents reporting slave ethnicities to construct estimates of the number of slaves exported from each country during Africa's slave trades. I find a robust negative relationship between the number of slaves exported from a country and current economic performance. To better understand if the relationship is causal, I examine the historical evidence on selection into the slave trades, and use instrumental variables. Together the evidence suggests that the slave trades have had an adverse effect on economic development.

JEL-codes: F1 F15 N0 O1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr and nep-his
Date: 2007-09
Note: ITI
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Working Paper: The Long-Term Effects of Africa's Slave Trades (2007)
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