Good, Bad, and Ugly Colonial Activities : Do They Matter for Economic Development?
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...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | en_US |
| Published: |
MIT Press
2015
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10986/21436 |
| Summary: | 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. |
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