LECTURE 13-14: SLAVERY IN THE MODERN WORLD Flashcards
3 conceptual dimensions
no property rights
specific political and cultural system/institution
labor relations
why did slavery emerge domar
land
if land is abundant and it is the only factor of production with labor
no landlord class, workers can move, no rent extracted, wage =MPL
if land is limited and we introduce capital
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
introduce gov
assigns property rights of land to owners, still not sufficient to extract rent, competition among the employers
gov limits possibility of moving
no more competition among the employers, allows emergence of non-working elite but labor needs to be scarce
necessary condition for slavery
low ratio, but becomes sufficient only when gov limits mobility
choice to end slavery
depends on difference in productivity. ends when difference in productivity is larger than difference in wage (and owners do not oppose abolition)
slavery in UK and US 18-19
major factor of growth
- 1770-1790: process of slave emancipation in north
- since 1790: institutional divergence norht and south
north and south
- north: densely populated
- south: lot of land and few workers
verifies domar’s hypothesis
why did slavery persist in south
fogel: because it was efficient given the existing system of production
- suitable for crops in south (cotton)
- efficient way of organising labor (gang)
conclusion of study south
- most productive teams of slaves were the largest
- slavery was effective when crop type required large scale and gang labor system
slavery as property rights system
- 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
effects on political attitudes today
prevalence of slavery practices in 1860 led to more conservative and racist attitudes today
two explanation
- historical persistence of political attitudes
- contemporary inequalities
historical persistence of political attitudes
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
2 transmission mechanisms contributing to persistence
- family socialisation
- institution: institutional path dependence
contemporary inequalities
- 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
explanatory variable
proportion of each county 1860 population that was slave
instrument
cotton suitability
%
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.
outcome variable
- 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
mechanisms to reinforce
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.
