Understanding the gains to capitalists from colonization: Lessons from Robert E. Lucas, Jr., Karl Marx and Edward Gibbon Wakefield

Edwyna Harris and Sumner La Croix

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2021, vol. 187, issue C, 348-359

Abstract: Britain after the Napoleonic wars saw the rise of colonial reformers, such as Edward Gibbon Wakefield, who had extensive influence on British colonial policy. A version of Wakefield's systematic colonization plan became the basis for legislation establishing the South Australia colony in 1834 and the New Zealand colony in 1840. We use extended versions of Robert Lucas's 1990 model of coordinated colonial investment to show how Wakefield's institutions were designed to work. We also find that the analysis of Wakefield's system by Karl Marx in Das Kapital follows the same line of reasoning as Lucas's analysis of colonial institutions.

Keywords: Robert Lucas Jr.; Karl Marx; Edward Gibbon Wakefield; Migration; Systematic colonization; South Australia; Coordinated investment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D44 N47 N57 N97 R30 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167268121001773
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
Working Paper: Understanding the Gains to Capitalists from Colonization: Lessons from Robert E. Lucas, Jr., Karl Marx and Edward Gibbon Wakefield (2020)
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:jeborg:v:187:y:2021:i:c:p:348-359

DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2021.04.030

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization is currently edited by Houser, D. and Puzzello, D.

More articles in Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().