From a new working paper (gated) by Daron Acemoglu et al.:
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 had gold mines during the 17th and 18th centuries to neighboring municipalities without gold mines. Gold mining was a major source of demand for slave labor during colonial times, and all colonial gold mines are now depleted. We find that the historical presence of slavery is associated with increased poverty and reduced school enrollment, vaccination coverage and public good provision. We also find that slavery is associated with higher contemporary land inequality.
Here is an ungated version.
In case you still did not know, Acemoglu and Robinson also blog at whynationsfail.com and tweet at @whynationsfail.
The Rationality Straw Man (Updated)
Last week I posted about “breast ironing,” the practice by which young women’s developing breasts are “massaged, pounded, pressed, or patted with an object, usually heated in a wooden fire, to make them stop developing, grow more slowly or disappear completely” in Cameroon. See my original post on the topic for the logic behind the practice, which I do not care to validate further by discussing it again.
In that post, I also discussed female genital mutilation (FGM), explaining how asking someone about their view of FGM was a litmus test of sorts for the limits of that person’s cultural relativism.
Carol Gallo wrote an excellent comment on my post, in which she explained that it is difficult for well-meaning outsiders to understand cultural phenomena like FGM. I responded by explaining how, though I disagree with FGM, I see the practice as rational. After all, if the norm is to have one’s daughter FGMed, not following the norm might lead to a fate worse than following the norm.
This is because of what we call a “multilateral punishment strategy” in economics — the phenomenon whereby norms are enforced by punishing those who do not follow norms, and by punishing would-be punishers whenever they fail to punish the transgressors. See Greif’s (1993) classic article on the Maghribi traders for a theoretical treatment, or read Kaushik Basu’s Prelude to Political Economy for a more intuitive discussion.
Carol responded, further beginning as follows:
Funnily enough, I only half-accept the idea of individual rationality because I see people do things that are terrible for them or make no sense all the time (…).
This brings me to the topic of today’s post.