Good, Bad, and Ugly Colonial Activities: Do They Matter for Economic Development?

Miriam Bruhn and Francisco Gallego

The Review of Economics and Statistics, 2012, vol. 94, issue 2, 433-461

Abstract: Levels of development vary widely within countries in the Americas. We argue that part of this variation has its roots in the colonial era, when colonizers engaged in different economic activities in different regions of a country. We present evidence consistent with the view that “bad” activities (those that depended heavily on labor exploitation) led to lower economic development today than “good” activities (those that did not rely on labor exploitation). Our results also suggest that differences in political representation (but not in income inequality or human capital) could be the intermediating factor between colonial activities and current development. © 2012 The President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Keywords: colonial era; labor exploitation; economic development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N30 O18 O43 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (81)

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Working Paper: Good, Bad and Ugly Colonial Activities: Do They Matter for Economic Development? (2009)
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