The Long-term Effects of Africa's Slave Trades

Nathan Nunn

The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2008, vol. 123, issue 1, 139-176

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 To explore this question, I use data from shipping records and historical documents reporting slave ethnicities to construct estimates of the number of slaves exported from each country during Africa's slave trades.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 had an adverse effect on economic development.

Date: 2008
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Working Paper: The Long-Term Effects of Africa's Slave Trades (2008)
Working Paper: The Long-Term Effects of Africa's Slave Trades (2007)
Working Paper: The Long-Term Effects of Africa's Slave Trades (2007)
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The Quarterly Journal of Economics is currently edited by Robert J. Barro, Lawrence F. Katz, Nathan Nunn, Andrei Shleifer and Stefanie Stantcheva

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