Increased trade is nowadays seen as one of the channels that can boost economic growth in ECOWAS. However, we are witnessing a relative decline in intra-ECOWAS trade. This relative weakness in intra-African trade is said to be due to trade barriers and obstacles. Notably, the quality of...

Domar (1970) has singled out the land/labor ratio as the main cause of both slavery and serfdom. But he then recognizes that scarcity of labor is necessary but not sufficient for serfdom to exist, and that an exogenous political factor is required to determine the status of labor.I show that in...

Do factor endowments explain serfdom? Domar (1970) conjectured that high land-labor ratios caused serfdom by increasing incentives to coerce labor. But historical evidence is mixed and quantitative analyses are lacking. Using the Acemoglu-Wolitzky (2011) framework and controlling for political...

This paper explores the international economic effects of forced labour, namely the linkages of forced labour with comparative advantage (trade) and foreign direct investment flows. It discusses several forms and the prevalence of forced labour and presents the results of empirical tests of...