The smallpox epidemic of 1781–82 in the Hudson Bay region is said to have devastated the native population, causing mortality of at least 50%. We reassess this claim using a four-pronged approach. First, we total smallpox deaths reported by two fur trading posts that were in the midst of the...

Farm settlement, where borrowing is constrained, is addressed with a life-cycle model. Because a pioneer farm must be cleared before becoming productive, the settler first accumulates in order to purchase supplies and maintain consumption during the initial years. Implications of the model are...

An inability to borrow affected migration from Europe to North America. This capital constraint is formalized with a life-cycle model, where agents jointly choose how much to save, the optimal period to finance migration, and whether to migrate. Using a life-cycle model we show that preference...