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Finding Eldorado: Slavery and Long-run Development in Colombia

Acemoglu, Daron; Robinson, James Alan; García-Jimeno, … - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2012

Slavery has been a major institution of labor coercion throughout history. Colonial societies used slavery intensively … across the Americas, and slavery remained prevalent in most countries after independence from the European powers. We … investigate the impact of slavery on long-run development in Colombia. Our identification strategy compares municipalities that …

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10011133526

Latin American Growth-Inequality Trade-Offs: The Impact of Insurgence and Independence

Williamson, Jeffrey Gale - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2010

Did independence push Latin America down a growth-inequality trade-off? During the late colonial decades, the region completed two centuries of growth unmatched anywhere and inequality reached spectacular heights. During the half century after insurgency and independence, inequality fell steeply...

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10008622355

Lost Decades: Lessons from Post-Independence Latin America for Today's Africa

Williamson, Jeffrey Gale; Bates, Robert H.; Coatsworth, … - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2006

Africa and Latin America secured their independence from European colonial rule a century and half apart: most of Latin America after 1820 and most of Africa after 1960. Despite the distance in time and space, they share important similarities. In each case independence was followed by political...

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005718756

Election Fairness and Government Legitimacy in Afghanistan

Berman, Eli; Callen, Michael J.; Gibson, Clark; Long, … - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2014

International development agencies invest heavily in institution building in fragile states, including expensive interventions to support democratic elections. Yet little evidence exists on whether elections enhance the domestic legitimacy of governments. Using the random assignment of an...

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010821739

Endowments, Fiscal Federalism, and the Cost of Capital for States: Evidence from Brazil, 1891-1930

Musacchio, Aldo; Fritscher, André C. Martínez - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2009

In the last few years there has been an explosion in the number of papers that aim to explain what determines country risk (defined as the difference between the yield of a sovereign's bonds and the risk free rate). In this paper, we contribute to the discussion using by showing that Brazilian...

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10008631109

Coercion, Culture and Debt Contracts: The Henequen Industry in Yucatan, Mexico, 1870-1915

Alston, Lee J.; Mattiace, Shannan; Nonnenmacher, Tomas - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2008

While most contemporary historians agree that the use of debt peonage as a coercive labor contract in Mexico was not widespread, scholars still concur that it was important and pervasive in Yucatan state during the henequen boom of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The henequen boom...

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005830180

Exclusionary Policies in Urban Development, How under-servicing of migrant households affects the growth and composition of Brazilian cities

Henderson, J. Vernon; Feler, Leo - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2008

Localities in developed countries often restrict construction and population growth through regulations governing land usage, lot sizes, building heights, and frontage requirements. In developing countries, such policies are less effective because of the existence of unregulated, informal...

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005830725

Economic and Political Inequality in Development: The Case of Cundinamarca, Colombia

Acemoglu, Daron; Robinson, James Alan; Bautista, María … - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2007

Is inequality harmful for economic growth? Is the underdevelopment of Latin America related to its unequal distribution of wealth? A recently emerging consensus claims not only that economic inequality has detrimental effects on economic growth in general, but also that differences in economic...

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005830802

Taxes and Growth in a Financially Underdeveloped Country: Evidence from the Chilean Investment Boom

Parker, Jonathan A.; Hsieh, Chang-Tai - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2006

This paper argues that taxation of retained profits is particularly distortionary in an economy with good growth prospects and poorly developed financial markets because it primarily reduces the investment of financially constrained firms, investment that has marginal product greater than the...

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10004969348

Five Centuries of Latin American Inequality

Williamson, Jeffrey Gale - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2009

Most analysts of the modern Latin American economy hold to a pessimistic belief in historical persistence -- they believe that Latin America has always had very high levels of inequality, suggesting it will be hard for modern social policy to create a more egalitarian society. This paper argues...

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005108396