Good, Bad, and Ugly Colonial Activities : Studying Development Across the Americas

Levels of economic development vary widely within countries in the Americas. This paper argues that part of this variation has its roots in the colonial era. Colonizers engaged in different economic activities in different regions of a country, dep...

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Main Authors:	Bruhn, Miriam, Gallego, Francisco A.
Format:	Policy Research Working Paper
Language:	English
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2012
Subjects:	ACCESS TO EDUCATION AGE DISTRIBUTION AGRICULTURE BENCHMARKS CALCULATIONS CASH CROPS CENSUS CENTRAL AMERICA CENTRAL AMERICAN CENTRAL BANK CHECKS CIVIL RIGHTS COMMODITIES CONTACT POPULATION CONTRIBUTION DECENTRALIZATION DISCRIMINATION DUAL ECONOMY ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES ECONOMIC ACTIVITY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ECONOMIC GROWTH ECONOMIC HISTORY ECONOMIC OUTCOMES ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE ECONOMIC POWER ECONOMIES OF SCALE EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT EQUAL ACCESS ETHNIC GROUPS FUTURE RESEARCH GDP GDP PER CAPITA GOVERNMENT POLICIES GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT PER CAPITA HOUSEHOLD INCOME HOUSEHOLD SURVEYS HUMAN CAPITAL HUMAN DEVELOPMENT IMMIGRATION IMPACT OF POPULATION INCOME INEQUALITY INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT LABOR FORCE LABOR SUPPLY LAND TENURE LEVEL OF DEVELOPMENT MALARIA MORTALITY NATIONAL LEVEL NATIONAL POLICIES NATIVE POPULATION NATURAL ENVIRONMENT NATURAL RESOURCES ORGANIZATIONAL FORM POLICY RESEARCH POLICY RESEARCH WORKING PAPER POLITICAL POWER POPULATION DENSITY POPULATION ESTIMATES POVERTY RATE POVERTY RATES PROBABILITY PRODUCTION FUNCTION PROGRESS PROPERTY OWNERSHIP PROPERTY RIGHTS PUBLIC GOODS RESEARCH ASSISTANCE RESPECT SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS SOCIAL SCIENCES SOCIETAL NORMS SOURCE OF INFORMATION TRANSPORTATION TRAUMA UNEMPLOYMENT UNIONS VALUABLE WEALTH
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2008/06/9496791/good-bad-ugly-colonial-activities-studying-development-across-americas http://hdl.handle.net/10986/6661

id	okr-10986-6661
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-66612021-04-23T14:02:32Z Good, Bad, and Ugly Colonial Activities : Studying Development Across the Americas Bruhn, Miriam Gallego, Francisco A. ACCESS TO EDUCATION AGE DISTRIBUTION AGRICULTURE BENCHMARKS CALCULATIONS CASH CROPS CENSUS CENTRAL AMERICA CENTRAL AMERICAN CENTRAL BANK CHECKS CIVIL RIGHTS COMMODITIES CONTACT POPULATION CONTRIBUTION DECENTRALIZATION DISCRIMINATION DUAL ECONOMY ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES ECONOMIC ACTIVITY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ECONOMIC GROWTH ECONOMIC HISTORY ECONOMIC OUTCOMES ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE ECONOMIC POWER ECONOMIES OF SCALE EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT EQUAL ACCESS ETHNIC GROUPS FUTURE RESEARCH GDP GDP PER CAPITA GOVERNMENT POLICIES GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT PER CAPITA HOUSEHOLD INCOME HOUSEHOLD SURVEYS HUMAN CAPITAL HUMAN DEVELOPMENT IMMIGRATION IMPACT OF POPULATION INCOME INEQUALITY INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT LABOR FORCE LABOR SUPPLY LAND TENURE LEVEL OF DEVELOPMENT MALARIA MORTALITY NATIONAL LEVEL NATIONAL POLICIES NATIVE POPULATION NATURAL ENVIRONMENT NATURAL RESOURCES ORGANIZATIONAL FORM POLICY RESEARCH POLICY RESEARCH WORKING PAPER POLITICAL POWER POPULATION DENSITY POPULATION ESTIMATES POVERTY RATE POVERTY RATES PROBABILITY PRODUCTION FUNCTION PROGRESS PROPERTY OWNERSHIP PROPERTY RIGHTS PUBLIC GOODS RESEARCH ASSISTANCE RESPECT SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS SOCIAL SCIENCES SOCIETAL NORMS SOURCE OF INFORMATION TRANSPORTATION TRAUMA UNEMPLOYMENT UNIONS VALUABLE WEALTH Levels of economic development vary widely within countries in the Americas. This paper argues that part of this variation has its roots in the colonial era. Colonizers engaged in different economic activities in different regions of a country, depending on local conditions. Some activities were "bad" in the sense that they depended heavily on the exploitation of labor and created extractive institutions, while "good" activities created inclusive institutions. The authors show that areas with bad colonial activities have lower gross domestic product per capita today than areas with good colonial activities. Areas with high pre-colonial population density also do worse today. In particular, the positive effect of "good" activities goes away in areas with high pre-colonial population density. The analysis attributes this to the "ugly" fact that colonizers used the pre-colonial population as an exploitable resource. The intermediating factor between history and current development appears to be institutional differences across regions and not income inequality or the current ethnic composition of the population. 2012-05-30T17:16:45Z 2012-05-30T17:16:45Z 2008-06 http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2008/06/9496791/good-bad-ugly-colonial-activities-studying-development-across-americas http://hdl.handle.net/10986/6661 English Policy Research Working Paper No. 4641 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Publications & Research
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	English
topic	ACCESS TO EDUCATION AGE DISTRIBUTION AGRICULTURE BENCHMARKS CALCULATIONS CASH CROPS CENSUS CENTRAL AMERICA CENTRAL AMERICAN CENTRAL BANK CHECKS CIVIL RIGHTS COMMODITIES CONTACT POPULATION CONTRIBUTION DECENTRALIZATION DISCRIMINATION DUAL ECONOMY ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES ECONOMIC ACTIVITY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ECONOMIC GROWTH ECONOMIC HISTORY ECONOMIC OUTCOMES ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE ECONOMIC POWER ECONOMIES OF SCALE EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT EQUAL ACCESS ETHNIC GROUPS FUTURE RESEARCH GDP GDP PER CAPITA GOVERNMENT POLICIES GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT PER CAPITA HOUSEHOLD INCOME HOUSEHOLD SURVEYS HUMAN CAPITAL HUMAN DEVELOPMENT IMMIGRATION IMPACT OF POPULATION INCOME INEQUALITY INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT LABOR FORCE LABOR SUPPLY LAND TENURE LEVEL OF DEVELOPMENT MALARIA MORTALITY NATIONAL LEVEL NATIONAL POLICIES NATIVE POPULATION NATURAL ENVIRONMENT NATURAL RESOURCES ORGANIZATIONAL FORM POLICY RESEARCH POLICY RESEARCH WORKING PAPER POLITICAL POWER POPULATION DENSITY POPULATION ESTIMATES POVERTY RATE POVERTY RATES PROBABILITY PRODUCTION FUNCTION PROGRESS PROPERTY OWNERSHIP PROPERTY RIGHTS PUBLIC GOODS RESEARCH ASSISTANCE RESPECT SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS SOCIAL SCIENCES SOCIETAL NORMS SOURCE OF INFORMATION TRANSPORTATION TRAUMA UNEMPLOYMENT UNIONS VALUABLE WEALTH
spellingShingle	ACCESS TO EDUCATION AGE DISTRIBUTION AGRICULTURE BENCHMARKS CALCULATIONS CASH CROPS CENSUS CENTRAL AMERICA CENTRAL AMERICAN CENTRAL BANK CHECKS CIVIL RIGHTS COMMODITIES CONTACT POPULATION CONTRIBUTION DECENTRALIZATION DISCRIMINATION DUAL ECONOMY ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES ECONOMIC ACTIVITY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ECONOMIC GROWTH ECONOMIC HISTORY ECONOMIC OUTCOMES ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE ECONOMIC POWER ECONOMIES OF SCALE EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT EQUAL ACCESS ETHNIC GROUPS FUTURE RESEARCH GDP GDP PER CAPITA GOVERNMENT POLICIES GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT PER CAPITA HOUSEHOLD INCOME HOUSEHOLD SURVEYS HUMAN CAPITAL HUMAN DEVELOPMENT IMMIGRATION IMPACT OF POPULATION INCOME INEQUALITY INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT LABOR FORCE LABOR SUPPLY LAND TENURE LEVEL OF DEVELOPMENT MALARIA MORTALITY NATIONAL LEVEL NATIONAL POLICIES NATIVE POPULATION NATURAL ENVIRONMENT NATURAL RESOURCES ORGANIZATIONAL FORM POLICY RESEARCH POLICY RESEARCH WORKING PAPER POLITICAL POWER POPULATION DENSITY POPULATION ESTIMATES POVERTY RATE POVERTY RATES PROBABILITY PRODUCTION FUNCTION PROGRESS PROPERTY OWNERSHIP PROPERTY RIGHTS PUBLIC GOODS RESEARCH ASSISTANCE RESPECT SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS SOCIAL SCIENCES SOCIETAL NORMS SOURCE OF INFORMATION TRANSPORTATION TRAUMA UNEMPLOYMENT UNIONS VALUABLE WEALTH Bruhn, Miriam Gallego, Francisco A. Good, Bad, and Ugly Colonial Activities : Studying Development Across the Americas
relation	Policy Research Working Paper No. 4641
description	Levels of economic development vary widely within countries in the Americas. This paper argues that part of this variation has its roots in the colonial era. Colonizers engaged in different economic activities in different regions of a country, depending on local conditions. Some activities were "bad" in the sense that they depended heavily on the exploitation of labor and created extractive institutions, while "good" activities created inclusive institutions. The authors show that areas with bad colonial activities have lower gross domestic product per capita today than areas with good colonial activities. Areas with high pre-colonial population density also do worse today. In particular, the positive effect of "good" activities goes away in areas with high pre-colonial population density. The analysis attributes this to the "ugly" fact that colonizers used the pre-colonial population as an exploitable resource. The intermediating factor between history and current development appears to be institutional differences across regions and not income inequality or the current ethnic composition of the population.
format	Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper
author	Bruhn, Miriam Gallego, Francisco A.
author_facet	Bruhn, Miriam Gallego, Francisco A.
author_sort	Bruhn, Miriam
title	Good, Bad, and Ugly Colonial Activities : Studying Development Across the Americas
title_short	Good, Bad, and Ugly Colonial Activities : Studying Development Across the Americas
title_full	Good, Bad, and Ugly Colonial Activities : Studying Development Across the Americas
title_fullStr	Good, Bad, and Ugly Colonial Activities : Studying Development Across the Americas
title_full_unstemmed	Good, Bad, and Ugly Colonial Activities : Studying Development Across the Americas
title_sort	good, bad, and ugly colonial activities : studying development across the americas
publisher	World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate	2012
url	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2008/06/9496791/good-bad-ugly-colonial-activities-studying-development-across-americas http://hdl.handle.net/10986/6661
_version_	1764400872131919872

Good, Bad, and Ugly Colonial Activities : Studying Development Across the Americas

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