International analysis of economic growth has confirmed the theoretical assumption that international variations in per capita income can to a large extent be explained by differences in the accumulation of capital and human capital and by differing rates of technological progress. However,...

We revisit the idea that colonized countries that were more (less) economically advanced in 1500 became poorer (richer, respectively) by the late 20th century. Using data on place of origin of today's country populations and the urbanization and population density measures used by Acemoglu et...