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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

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

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

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

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

Estimating the Production Function for Human Capital: Results from a Randomized Control Trial in Colombia

Attanasio, Orazio; Meghir, Costas; Cattan, Sarah; … - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2015

We examine the channels through which a randomized early childhood intervention in Colombia led to significant gains in cognitive and socio-emotional skills among a sample of disadvantaged children. We estimate production functions for cognitive and socio-emotional skills as a function of...

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10011185008

Under-Savers Anonymous: Evidence on Self-Help Groups and Peer Pressure as a Savings Commitment Device

Meier, Stephan; Kast, Felipe; Pomeranz, Dina - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2012

We test the effectiveness of self-help peer groups as a commitment device for precautionary savings, through two randomized field experiments among 2,687 microentrepreneurs in Chile. The first experiment finds that self-help peer groups are a powerful tool to increase savings (the number of...

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010821682

The Importance of Parental Knowledge and Social Norms: Evidence from Weight Report Cards in Mexico

Prina, Silvia; Royer, Heather - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2013

The rise of childhood obesity in less developed countries is often overlooked. We study the impact of body weight report cards in Mexico. The report cards increased parental knowledge and shifted parental attitudes about children's weight. We observe no meaningful changes in parental behaviors...

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010821846

Bases, Bullets and Ballots: the Effect of U.S. Military Aid on Political Conflict in Colombia

Dube, Oeindrila; Naidu, Suresh - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2014

Does foreign military assistance strengthen or further weaken fragile states facing internal conflict? Aid may strengthen the state by bolstering its repressive capacity vis-à-vis armed non-state actors, or weaken it if resources are diverted to these very groups. We examine how U.S. military...

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010969300