Slavery, education, and inequality

Graziella Bertocchi () and Arcangelo Dimico

European Economic Review, 2014, vol. 70, issue C, 197-209

Abstract: We investigate the effect of slavery on the current level of income inequality across US counties. We find that a larger proportion of slaves over population in 1860 persistently increases inequality, and in particular inequality across races. We also show that a crucial channel of transmission from slavery to racial inequality is human capital accumulation, i.e., current inequality is primarily influenced by slavery through the unequal educational attainment of blacks and whites. Finally, we provide suggestive evidence that the underlying links run through the political exclusion of former slaves and the resulting negative influence on the local provision of education.

Keywords: Slavery; Inequality; Education; Institutions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D02 E02 H52 J15 O11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (46)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0014292114000695
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
Working Paper: Slavery, Education, and Inequality (2010)
Working Paper: Slavery, Education, and Inequality (2010)
Working Paper: Slavery, Education, and Inequality (2010)
Working Paper: Slavery, Education, and Inequality (2010)
Working Paper: Slavery, Education, and Inequality (2010)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:eecrev:v:70:y:2014:i:c:p:197-209

DOI: 10.1016/j.euroecorev.2014.04.007

Access Statistics for this article

European Economic Review is currently edited by T.S. Eicher, A. Imrohoroglu, E. Leeper, J. Oechssler and M. Pesendorfer

More articles in European Economic Review from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().