The European origins of economic development

William Easterly and Ross Levine ()

Journal of Economic Growth, 2016, vol. 21, issue 3, No 1, 225-257

Abstract: Abstract Although a large literature argues that European settlement outside of Europe during colonization had an enduring effect on economic development, researchers have been unable to assess these predictions directly because of an absence of data on colonial European settlement. We construct a new database on the European share of the population during colonization and examine its association with economic development today. We find a strong, positive relation between current income per capita and colonial European settlement that is robust to controlling for the current proportion of the population of European descent, as well as many other country characteristics. The results suggest that any adverse effects of extractive institutions associated with small European settlements were, even at low levels of colonial European settlement, more than offset by other things that Europeans brought, such as human capital and technology.

Keywords: Institutions; Human capital; Political economy; Natural resources; 043; 01; P48; N5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (108)

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Working Paper: The European Origins of Economic Development (2012)
Working Paper: The European origins of economic development (2012)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kap:jecgro:v:21:y:2016:i:3:d:10.1007_s10887-016-9130-y

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DOI: 10.1007/s10887-016-9130-y

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