Colonialism

Question 1

Acemoglu et al

Answer 1

Settler mortality leading to extractive vs inclusive institutions. Belgian colonisation of Congo; vs Crosby’s neo-Europes. Once the effect of institutions is controlled for, countries in Africa or those closer to the equator do not have lower incomes, showing that Africa is poorer than the rest of the world not because of pure geographic or cultural factors, but because of worse institutions

Question 2

Acemoglu et al

Answer 2

Reversal in quality of institutions. Places that were poor before got good institutions because they became neo-Europes (similar climates so no large disease burden), while extractive institutions persisted in previously rich areas, which colonisers either maintained or introduced

Question 3

Engerman and Sokoloff

Answer 3

Adverse effects of the plantation complex in the Carribean and Central America in creating inequality, by installing poor, extractive institutions. Short term, 50-67% higher GDP than the US, but long-term worse

Question 4

Dell

Answer 4

Long-run effect of mining mita, a forced labour system in Peru and Bolivia, where 1/7 of the male population worked in mines. Methodology: used the discountinuity in the conscription system for an RD set up, with the mining change an exogenous variable. Exploits a geographical boundary, where on one side all communities had to send the same proportion of the population, while on the other, all communities were exempt.

Findings: places within the mita area are poorer today, with 1) fewer haciendas, 2) less integrated infrastructure, 3) more subsistence farming, 4) lowered household income by 25%, and increased the prevalence of stunted growth in children around 6%. Due to colonialism’s legacy on land tenure and public goods provision
4) Large landowners can be a good thing, because they have the incentive to develop and provide public goods.
5) Effects now: mita districts are less integrated into road networks, and mita residents are more likely to be subsistence farmers
Long-term presence of large landowners in non-mita districts provided a stable land tenure system that encouraged public goods provision, whereas Peruvian government abolished communal land tenure in mita districts after mita ended, but did not replace it with a system of peasant titling; so confiscation of peasant lands, peasant rebellions etc occurred in mita districts in late 19th and 20th centuries. Concludes that elites using state machinery to coerce labour is harmful

What were the channels of persistence?
1. Haciendas - rural estates with an attached labour force, which developed outside the mita catchment. Under the mita policy, the state promoted communal land tenure instead, which affected hacienda concentration until 1940. Established landowners in non-mita districts had more secure title to property and experienced higher returns from investing in public goods. Hacienda also successfully lobbied for roads, government funds etc, leading to strong economic development
2. Mitas lowered educational attainment
3. Mitas increased the prevalence of subsistence farming

VS Engerman and Sokoloff - hypothesise that high land inequality is the cause of Latin America’s poor long-run growth. Argue that high historical inequality and large landowners lowered investment in public goods and led to worse outcomes in areas of the Americas. BUT their counterfactual (secure, enfranchised smallholders) does not fit Peru or other places

Question 5

Lowes and Montero

Answer 5

Extraction of rubber by Belgians in modern-day DRC through forced conscription. Also led to lower levels of education, lower wealth, stunted growth in children, lower levels of public goods. BUT also higher respect for authority, higher trust in others, and more sharing norms

Question 6

Dell and Olken

Answer 6

Extraction of sugarcane by the Dutch from Java, Indonesia, through (forced) employment of locals. Led to denser population, higher road and rail density, higher levels of education and higher household consumption

Question 7

Donaldson

Answer 7

Extraction of commodities eg. barley and cotton from India under the British through (forced) employment of locals. Led to lower cost of trading, reduced inter-regional price gaps, far better developed railroads, increased trade volumes, increased real agricultural income

Question 8

Woodberry

Answer 8

1. Missionary activity was beneficial - conversionary Protestants heavily influenced the spread of democracy by introducing religious liberty, mass education, printing, newspapers, civil associations and colonial reforms eg. codification of legal protections for non-whites.
2. Statistically, the historic prevalence of Protestant missionaries explains about half the variation in democracy in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Oceania
3. Mechanisms:
   1) conversionary Protestsants wanted people to be able to read the Bible in their own language and facilitate lay religious involvement → catalysed mass education and civil society, hampering elite attempts to monopolise these resources. Such resource transfers to non-elites helped alter class structure, fostered the rise of political parties and nonviolent political movements and facilitated broader political participation.
   2) They had historically suffered from discrimination so they fought for religious liberties
   3) nonstate missionaries moderated colonial abuses - undermined elite social reproduction
   4) affected class structure by dispersing education to women and the poor

Question 9

Easterly and Levine

Answer 9

Europeans brought growth-inducing characteristics. Eg. institutions, human capital, technology, connections with international markets, and cultural norms. They argue these factors offset the extractive institutions by minority European settlement, and that colonialism overall had a beneficial economic effect on colonised countries. Once settlement was higher than 4.8%, benefits outweighed harms. Estimate that 40% of current development outside Europe is associated with share of Europeans in colonial era

Question 10

Feyrer and Sacerdote

Answer 10

Use wind patterns (exogenous variable) -some countries were harder to sail to and were colonised for a shorter period of time.

Findings: 1) places which have been colonised for a longer time are richer today - an increased 100 years of colonial history is associated with a 42% increase in GDP
2) US and Dutch colonies were better than Spanish and Portugese colonies, perhaps due to their institutions
3) later colonialism was better than earlier colonialism, perhaps because of the Enlightenment

Question 11

Glaeser et al

Answer 11

European settlers directly and immediately added human capital skills to the colonies and also had long-run effects on human capital accumulation

Question 12

Mamdani

Answer 12

Colonialism led to decentralised despotism in rural areas (ruled through traditional authority structures) and more democratic rule in urban areas (ruled directly by colonisers). Became bifurcate states with different models of rule for ‘citizens’ and for ‘subjects’

Question 13

Robinson

Answer 13

Colonialism creates patterns of development that often leave countries highly dependent on exports from monocrop agriculture or resource-extractive industry, leaving many post-colonial economies vulnerable to volatile prices for primary goods on the world market

Question 14

Diamond

Answer 14

Ethnic and religious fractionalisation due to badly-drawn territorial boundaries - ‘some large ethnic groups were split between colonial states, while others with little in common, save in some instances a history of warfare and enmity, were drawn together into the new state boundaries.’ This harms democratisation and maintenance of democracy

Question 15

Bernhard et al (democratise)

Answer 15

A colonial past generally diminishes a democracy’s prospects of survival because of 1) underdevelopment, 2) higher levels of social fragmentation, and 3) relationship between state and civil society.

State and civil society:
a) authoritarian rule left elites and population unprepared for democracy.
b) structural legacies of colonial rule and homogenising impulses of nationalist movements led to strongly predatory state.
c) colonial economic development i) increased the power of classes which had been resistant to democracy while ii) weakening those classes who struggled for democracy

Question 16

Paine

Answer 16

1. In colonies with early representative institutions, there was perverse institutional evolution, including resisted enfranchisement and contestation backsliding. Because sizable European settler minorities usually composed an entrenched landed class, leading to voting restrictions and legislature disbandment.
2. 11 of 19 settler colonies that experienced electoral representation also exhibited large-scale settler resistance to franchise expansion.
3. Responds to Dahl’s argument that there is a path from competitive oligarchy to full democracy. Dahl argues establishing electoral competition among a small, cohesive elite like European settlers, followed by mass franchise expansion, should lead to full democracy.
4. Responds to Acemoglu et al that European settlers tended to transplant representative institutions early in the colonial era to protect property rights and to promote freedoms within the European community.

Question 17

Mama

Answer 17

Colonialism perpetuated a patriarchal military regime in modern Africa, because:
1) lingering effects of colonial political institutions that relied on a gendered separation of the private and public spheres,
2) caused military rule and civil war due to the institutional dominance of all-male colonial security systems. The militaristic nature of colonial rule meant many African countries rapidly descended into military rule and civil war following independence

Question 18

Herbst

Answer 18

No infrastructural development because no need to defend borders
European colonial powers had little incentive to develop state institutions to protect their colonies against invasion, having divided up Africa at the Berlin Conference. The colonizers instead focused on plundering natural resources through exploitation colonialism. The international state system enforced colonial boundaries of African states following independence, eroding any possible survival mandate. Hence African states have therefore survived without developing the robust and responsive physical, economic, and political infrastructure of modern European states

Question 19

Nunn and Wantchekon

Answer 19

1. Slave trade led to a ‘culture of mistrust’ - ‘individuals could partially protect themselves by turning against others within their community’.
2. Individuals turned on each other, and kidnapped, tricked and sold each other into slavery.
3. Places hit harder by transatlantic slave trade (measured by distance to port and ease of transport) have less trust now in neighbours, relatives, as well as their local government. Such a lack of trust is very detrimental to the development of institutions, whether political or economic, and also greatly raises the costs of enforcing laws and informal agreements.
4. Internal effect on beliefs/values (measured by ancestors) were twice as important as the effects of external environment (institutions)

Question 19

Nunn and Wantchekon

Answer 19

1. Slave trade led to a ‘culture of mistrust’ - ‘individuals could partially protect themselves by turning against others within their community’.
2. Individuals turned on each other, and kidnapped, tricked and sold each other into slavery.
3. Places hit harder by transatlantic slave trade (measured by distance to port and ease of transport) have less trust now in neighbours, relatives, as well as their local government. Such a lack of trust is very detrimental to the development of institutions, whether political or economic, and also greatly raises the costs of enforcing laws and informal agreements.
4. Internal effect on beliefs/values (measured by ancestors) were twice as important as the effects of external environment (institutions)

Question 20

Nunn and Wantchekon

Answer 20

1. Slave trade led to a ‘culture of mistrust’ - ‘individuals could partially protect themselves by turning against others within their community’.
2. Individuals turned on each other, and kidnapped, tricked and sold each other into slavery.
3. Places hit harder by transatlantic slave trade (measured by distance to port and ease of transport) have less trust now in neighbours, relatives, as well as their local government. Such a lack of trust is very detrimental to the development of institutions, whether political or economic, and also greatly raises the costs of enforcing laws and informal agreements.
4. Internal effect on beliefs/values (measured by ancestors) were twice as important as the effects of external environment (institutions)

Question 21

Tabellini

Answer 21

Explains the persistence of culture/trust explained by Nunn and Wantchekon.
1. People inherit norms from parents and make political choices that determine the quality of institutions
2. Norms of cooperation hence affect quality of domestic institutions
3. Negative shock to norms of cooperation means the next generation is less trusting, and the next generation chooses institutions with weaker enforcement, leading to poor behaviour and entrenched lower levels of trust. Culture also changes slowly, so it may be the case that the shock caused by the slave trade has not dissipated yet

Question 22

Banerjee and Iyer

Answer 22

Landlord-owned colonial land revenue institutions set up by the British in India led to lower agricultural investments and productivity compared to democratically-owned areas, as they led to different policy interests and preferences, which manifested in a legacy of vastly different land-holding policies. In areas where proprietary rights in land were given to landlords, there were lower agricultural investments and productivity after independence, compared to areas where rights were given to cultivators. This was a persistent effect as a result of different land revenue policies; they were abolished after they left, so there were no direct taxes or agricultural incomes anymore

Channels for persistence:
1. Class-based antagonism created by the formal structure of landlordism persisted post-independence
2. Conflictual environment limited collective action
3. States with a higher proportion of landlord districts have lower levels of public development, due to public spending gaps between landlord and non-landlord districts in health, education and agricultural tech
4. Landlord districts were unable to claim their fair share of public investment

Why was the land system important?
1. Landlords were given a free hand to set terms for the tenants, and could appropriate most gains in productivity. Landlords grew richer and inequality increased
2. The distribution of wealth influenced growth: a) determined how many in the peasantry had enough land or wealth to make investments needed to raise productivity, b) affected the balance between those who cultivated their own land and those who cultivated others’ land (principal-agent problem and inefficient), c) political interests of rural masses diverged from that of the elite
3. The right to set land revenue rates and penalise those who did not pay gave landlords a lot of apolitical power, leading to insecure peasant property, discouragement of investments due to risk of expropriation by landlords
4. Arbitrary power created class-based resentment, especially when landlord states were busy carrying out land reforms while others focused on development

Question 23

Michalopoulos and Papaioannou

Answer 23

In the Scramble for Africa, conflict was more likely in ethnic groups partitioned by borders (without input from Africans), led to increased violence and discrimination and made countries poorer. Shows that borders were drawn arbitrarily wrt to ethnic partitioning, with no respect for local political geography. Civil conflict was higher, and partitioned groups often face discrimination from the national government and engage in rebellions to counter repression, often supported by co-ethnics on the other side of the border. Partitioned ethnicities are 11-14% more likely to engage in civil wars and 7% more likely to be the subject of discrimination from the national government

Cites other scholars:
1. Herbst argues that artificial border fostered ethnic struggles and conflict, and split groups across newly minted African states.
2. Horowitz argues that ethnic partitioning led to successionist tendencies and nationalism, as well as irredentism, which are movements where members claim territory they consider ‘lost’ to their nation. Split groups have been instrumentally used by governments to destabilise neighbouring countries

Question 24

Lange

Answer 24

Former British colonies do better than others because of 1) intensities, 2) transformations of social structures and 3) building a variety of institutions. Differentiates between direct rule, where centralised institutions were constructed and there was an inclusive settler colony, with indirect rule, which saw collaboration with indigenous elites but extractive institutions, despotic and predatory rule and limited capacity to provide goods with ineffective legal institutions

Question 25

Weiner

Answer 25

Since WWII, all continuous postcolonial democracies were former British colonies

Question 26

North et al

Answer 26

Former British colonies prospered relative to former French, Spanish, and Portuguese colonies because of the good economic and political institutions and culture they inherited from Britain

Question 27

Von Der Mehden

Answer 27

Long-term colonial status resulted in the creation of a superior civil service, especially at the senior level, an in the adoption of the colonial language as a lingua franca for the new colonial elite

Question 28

Paine

Answer 28

1. Only British settler colonies saw early elected legislative representation, eg. Hong Kong’s first legislative council elections in 1985 (but early institutions only represented white population)
2. Ascendant but challenged white oligarchies exerted major resistance to expanding the franchise to nonwhites, and that these actions negatively affected democratic contestation. Evidence on voting restrictions and legislature disbandment from Africa, British Carribean and US South

Question 29

Bernhard et al (Britain)

Answer 29

1. Britain not special due to parliamentarism, because in Africa, many British possessions opted for presidentialism
   2) British held democratic elections for local self-governing bodies, especially parliaments that were granted extensive powers of home rule
   3) superior infrastructure - education, transportation, communication, rule of law
   4) patterns of colonial rule - Conteh-Morgan - ‘indirect rule’ in Africa for the British, ‘direct rule’ for the French, ‘economically focused paternialism’ for the Belgians, and an oppressive ‘assimilationist’ approach for the Portugese