LECTURE 13-14: SLAVERY IN THE MODERN WORLD

Question 1

3 conceptual dimensions

Answer 1

no property rights
specific political and cultural system/institution
labor relations

Question 2

why did slavery emerge domar

Answer 2

land

Question 3

if land is abundant and it is the only factor of production with labor

Answer 3

no landlord class, workers can move, no rent extracted, wage =MPL

Question 4

if land is limited and we introduce capital

Answer 4

land-to-labour ratio is high: w = MPL, workers can move and little capital needed to start farm
land-to-labour ratio is low: workers can’t move and rent is extracted. wage between MPL and subsistence

Question 5

introduce gov

Answer 5

assigns property rights of land to owners, still not sufficient to extract rent, competition among the employers

Question 6

gov limits possibility of moving

Answer 6

no more competition among the employers, allows emergence of non-working elite but labor needs to be scarce

Question 7

necessary condition for slavery

Answer 7

low ratio, but becomes sufficient only when gov limits mobility

Question 8

choice to end slavery

Answer 8

depends on difference in productivity. ends when difference in productivity is larger than difference in wage (and owners do not oppose abolition)

Question 9

slavery in UK and US 18-19

Answer 9

major factor of growth
- 1770-1790: process of slave emancipation in north
- since 1790: institutional divergence norht and south

Question 10

north and south

Answer 10

• north: densely populated
• south: lot of land and few workers
  verifies domar’s hypothesis

Question 11

why did slavery persist in south

Answer 11

fogel: because it was efficient given the existing system of production
- suitable for crops in south (cotton)
- efficient way of organising labor (gang)

Question 12

conclusion of study south

Answer 12

• most productive teams of slaves were the largest
• slavery was effective when crop type required large scale and gang labor system

Question 13

slavery as property rights system

Answer 13

• slavery persisted not because of tis efficiency but because of the system of property rights protecting owners
• slaves as assets to be exchanged for land
• slaves could shift sector easily, adapting to changing market demands
• female contributed more in gang labor system and were exploited more

Question 14

effects on political attitudes today

Answer 14

prevalence of slavery practices in 1860 led to more conservative and racist attitudes today

Question 15

two explanation

Answer 15

• historical persistence of political attitudes
• contemporary inequalities

Question 16

historical persistence of political attitudes

Answer 16

presence of slaves and the shock coming from the removal of slavery created incentives for whites to create institutions to maintain political and economic power,
owners lost their most important production factor and also faced economic threat
spread culture and norms reinforcing racist and conservative views still present today

Question 17

2 transmission mechanisms contributing to persistence

Answer 17

• family socialisation
• institution: institutional path dependence

Question 18

contemporary inequalities

Answer 18

• percentage of AA in black belt today (racial threat, more conservative policies)
• inequality and income gaps
• white migration

rule out contemporary - based explanations and provide evidence that effects of slavery persist despite accounting for factors like demographics and migration
- Racial threat: contemporary black shares have little influence on slavery’s effect on any of the outcomes
- Geographic sorting: no significant interactions between migrant status and proportion slave (migrants appear very similar to each other)
- Contemporary income inequality: no interaction between income and proportion slave

Question 19

explanatory variable

Answer 19

proportion of each county 1860 population that was slave

Question 20

instrument

Answer 20

cotton suitability

Question 21

%

Answer 21

of slaves affected post-abolition tendencies, which translated into institutional and cultural beliefs that were passed on generationally through family socialisation and institutions. this affects political attitudes today.

Question 22

outcome variable

Answer 22

• Partisanship: increase in slave proportion is associated with decrease in share of whites who currently identify as democrats (therefore are republican)
• Support for affirmative action: associated with decrease in support for affirmative action
• Racial resentment: increase in average racial resentment score
• White-black thermometer difference: increase in county average thermometer preference for whites relative to blacks

Question 23

mechanisms to reinforce

Answer 23

They provide evidence for this theory by examining post-bellum political and economic incentives as the driving mechanism, highlighting the historical origins of contemporary political attitudes in the American South.continued use of racial social norms, expansion of racist ideas from the elites to the general public, and inter-generational socialisation.