Persistent Effects of Peru's Mining Mita

Question 1

Author and Year

Answer 1

Dell 2010

Question 2

Main Questions to answer?

Answer 2

Do persistent effects exist today that date back to the 1573-1812 Spanish Mita?
If so, what are the main channels of persistence?

Question 3

3 channels that could affect the present

Answer 3

Communal Land prevalence
Public good provisoin - Low education and isolation of Mita Stricken populations
Markets - Subsistence farming

Question 4

Where does dell get data from?

Answer 4

• matches mita districts with modern districts and obtains data from national statistics agencies
• living standards based on consumption and nutrition estimates
• elevation and slopes from NASA’s Radar typography Channel

Question 5

Overarching empirical strategy?

Answer 5

Regression Discontinuity Design

Question 6

Treatment and Control groups?

Answer 6

Mita and Non-mita

Question 7

What does RDD require?

Answer 7

requires smooth change in multidimensional factors. Because this paper is based on geography, it needs all other characteristics to be as similar as possible

• the only discontinuity must be the existence of Mita
• Dell shows when required that characteristics at the border are smooth - elevation and other natural characteristics

Question 8

Where does comparison take place?

Answer 8

Border - districts are 20 x 20 km, not one:one village comparisons

Question 9

Statistical benefit of RDD

Answer 9

statistical tool that avoids critique that mita and non mita regions are different in many other compounding factors

Question 10

How does Dell justify cross border comparison

Answer 10

• elevation to be statistically identical
• ruggedness statistically significant but small and mita households in less rugged terrain
• no statistical differences in ethnicity
• no historical evidence on population density differences
• tributes received by Encomederos did not show statistical differences

Question 11

Main results

Answer 11

Mita system lowered household consumption by 25% in 2001 and child stunted growth prevalence higher by approximately 6%

Question 12

What are the channels of persistence

Answer 12

• land tenure
• public goods provision
• market participation

Question 13

Explain the land tenure channel

Answer 13

• mita policy area tried to avoid the creation of haciendas and landed elite to avoid competition for labour
• in 1970s, land reform where haciendas broken up. 20% of those in hacienda region received land, only 9% in mita

Question 14

Explain the public good provision channel

Answer 14

• hacienda region had much more secure property rights law
• this encouraged investment in public goods such as roads, education etc. (property rights argument but for communal land)
• Landed elites also had lobbying power

Question 15

Explain market participation channel

Answer 15

• increased subsistence farming in mita region means lack of market participation
• another hypothesis linked to PG provision - poorer roads meant higher transaction costs, less market participation

Question 16

How does the paper challenge existing theories of Latin America development?

Answer 16

• general consensus is that secure and enfranchised small holders important for development (Engerman and Sokoloff 1997)
• Not appropriate in Peru where actually large landowners unintentionally shielded individuals from exploitation from a highly extractive state and ensured public good provision
• Institution structures were largely in place before the landed elite and did not provide secure property rights

Question 17

How many directions is the regression discontinuity ran? why?

Answer 17

in two directions since the boundary is located in a geographical space