Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Leandro Prados de la Escosura Author-X-Name-First: Leandro Author-X-Name-Last: Prados de la Escosura Title: OUTPUT PER HEAD IN PRE-INDEPENDENCE AFRICA: QUANTITATIVE CONJECTURES Abstract: GDP figures for Africa are unreliable. More dependable information can be found in government expenditure and international trade records. These records, though, provide little insight into non-market output. In this paper an attempt is made to draw explicit conjectures on real output per head in pre-independence Africa on the basis of trade data so that conjectures can be established about Africa's long-run growth. Two alternative approaches are considered. One estimates per capita GDP by assuming no increase in output per head outside the tradable sector, for which the purchasing power of per capita exports is accepted as a proxy. Another approach establishes an econometric association between real per capita GDP and the income terms of trade per head for 1950-1990 and, on the basis of the prediction equation's parameters and the values of the RHS variables, infers real output per head for 1870-1938. Trends in real output per head are then drawn for Africa (and its main regions). By comparing these trends with those from other developing regions, some conjectures about Africa's relative position over time are put forward. It emerges that economic growth started earlier than usually assumed and there is continuity in growth before and after colonial independence. Sub-Saharan Africa's retardation is a gradual process, as growing and falling behind took place simultaneously. But it is in the period 1975-1995 when the worst setback in modern Africa's history took place. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 1-36 Issue: 2 Volume: 27 Year: 2012 Month: 12 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2012.745659 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2012.745659 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:27:y:2012:i:2:p:1-36 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Yen-liang Chen Author-X-Name-First: Yen-liang Author-X-Name-Last: Chen Author-Name: Cheng-chung Lai Author-X-Name-First: Cheng-chung Author-X-Name-Last: Lai Title: GOOD MONEY DRIVES OUT BAD: A NOTE ON FREE COINAGE AND GRESHAM'S LAW IN THE CHINESE HAN DYNASTY Abstract: Gresham's law states only one precondition: in the world of metal coins, if there is a fixed rate of exchange between good and bad money, then bad money will drive out good. We argue, however, that when there is no fixed exchange rate between good and bad money, and when the government encourages free coinage, then it is possible for good money to drive out bad. We use these two preconditions to explain why the sizhu coins were successful during the reign of Emperor Wen (179-157 BC) under his free coinage policy. Our analysis of their metal composition and their weights confirms that the sizhu coins minted under a free coinage policy had a better metal content those produced under a central minting policy. This supports our argument that in certain circumstances Gresham's Law will be reversed. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 37-46 Issue: 2 Volume: 27 Year: 2012 Month: 12 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2012.745660 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2012.745660 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:27:y:2012:i:2:p:37-46 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Martine Mariotti Author-X-Name-First: Martine Author-X-Name-Last: Mariotti Title: ESTIMATING THE SUBSTITUTABILITY OF AFRICAN AND WHITE WORKERS IN SOUTH AFRICAN MANUFACTURING, 1950-1985 Abstract: In this paper I estimate the elasticity of substitution between African and white workers in the South African manufacturing industry during Apartheid. I find that the elasticity of substitution remained fairly high despite changes in the technology used in manufacturing, despite changes in the allocation of jobs to African and white workers, and despite the increasing skill differential between white and African workers. The elasticity of substitution for production workers declined from 9.81 in 1950 to 4.64 by 1985. This result shows that African and white workers were substitutes throughout Apartheid notwithstanding legislation restricting the types of jobs that African workers could do. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 47-60 Issue: 2 Volume: 27 Year: 2012 Month: 12 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2012.745664 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2012.745664 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:27:y:2012:i:2:p:47-60 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Jeanne Cilliers Author-X-Name-First: Jeanne Author-X-Name-Last: Cilliers Author-Name: Johan Fourie Author-X-Name-First: Johan Author-X-Name-Last: Fourie Title: NEW ESTIMATES OF SETTLER LIFE SPAN AND OTHER DEMOGRAPHIC TRENDS IN SOUTH AFRICA, 1652-1948 Abstract: To date, very little is known about the demography of European settlers in South Africa, since descriptions have been based on Ross's 1975 calculations of a small sample of 300 observations in the Cape Colony. In this paper we provide a broader and deeper account, using a dataset drawn from the Genealogical Institute of South Africa (2008) that includes information on 401,602 observations of settlers in South Africa and spans the period 1652 to 1948. We estimate useful descriptive statistics on key demographic indicators: population dynamics, age distribution, longevity, marriage patterns, and dependency burdens. These shed new light on the development and demographic transition of the South African settler population and enable international comparisons. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 61-86 Issue: 2 Volume: 27 Year: 2012 Month: 12 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2012.745663 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2012.745663 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:27:y:2012:i:2:p:61-86 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: J.H. Havenga Author-X-Name-First: J.H. Author-X-Name-Last: Havenga Author-Name: W.J. Pienaar Author-X-Name-First: W.J. Author-X-Name-Last: Pienaar Title: QUANTIFYING FREIGHT TRANSPORT VOLUMES IN DEVELOPING REGIONS: LESSONS LEARNT FROM SOUTH AFRICA'S EXPERIENCE DURING THE 20th CENTURY Abstract: A number of attempts were made during the 20th century to develop national freight flow information for South Africa. This paper discusses these contributions and attempts to identify the major reasons why the research did not give rise to long-term strategic infrastructure planning. It is important to learn these lessons to avoid making the same mistakes during the critical large-scale infrastructure investments that are unfolding in the first half of the 21st century. The paper starts with an overview of the development of South Africa's surface freight transport infrastructure, and then provides a cross-country comparison of South Africa's key freight indicators. This serves to underscore the importance of a long-term approach to such infrastructure investment. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 87-113 Issue: 2 Volume: 27 Year: 2012 Month: 12 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2012.745666 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2012.745666 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:27:y:2012:i:2:p:87-113 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Paul Caruana-Galizia Author-X-Name-First: Paul Author-X-Name-Last: Caruana-Galizia Title: INDIAN REGIONAL INCOME INEQUALITY: ESTIMATES OF PROVINCIAL GDP, 1875-1911 Abstract: After constructing a dataset on Indian provincial GDP per capita between 1875 and 1911, I examine it for levels and trends of provincial income inequality. Cross-sectional dispersion of income was initially high, but declined over time. In terms of levels, internal Indian inequality compared well with a number of European states. Testing for unconditional beta-convergence, I found a tendency for provinces to converge to their steady-state at a rate of 0.6 per cent; 6.7 per cent when controlling for province and year fixed-effects. These results indicate that the likely forces of convergence (mainly driven by transport and communication infrastructure advances) trumped forces of divergence (heterogeneity in social and geographical characteristics). I made no formal attempts to uncover the true drivers of provincial dynamics. Future research would do well to test the dynamic effects of observable provincial geographical and political characteristics on growth. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 1-27 Issue: 1 Volume: 28 Year: 2013 Month: 6 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2013.805510 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2013.805510 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:28:y:2013:i:1:p:1-27 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Antonio Tena-Junguito Author-X-Name-First: Antonio Author-X-Name-Last: Tena-Junguito Author-Name: Henry Willebald Author-X-Name-First: Henry Author-X-Name-Last: Willebald Title: ON THE ACCURACY OF EXPORT GROWTH IN ARGENTINA, 1870-1913 Abstract: Argentine export growth before the First World War is considered one of the most relevant variables in order to understand the main characteristics of Argentina's long-run modern economic growth properly. The lack of accuracy of the official export series, especially the relative official values used, lies behind some of the controversies and doubts of the historiography when addressing the causes and consequences of Argentina's international convergence. We have used empirical evidence to test the accuracy of quantities and value exports records, first, according to their import partners' records and, second, according to international market prices. Results show that the hypothesis of export price undervaluation bias is correct. In the light of these results we reconstructed a new Argentine export f.o.b. values and price index using international prices valued in pounds sterling which allows us to offer a new proposal indicating a more dynamic Argentine export growth during the Belle Époque years. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 28-68 Issue: 1 Volume: 28 Year: 2013 Month: 6 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2013.805508 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2013.805508 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:28:y:2013:i:1:p:28-68 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Guo-ping He Author-X-Name-First: Guo-ping Author-X-Name-Last: He Title: THE RISE AND FALL OF SERFDOM IN CHINA: A THEORY OF INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE Abstract: This article uses contract theory and institutional change theory to make suggestions about the factors underlying the rise and fall of serfdom in China. The article defines serfdom as a labour contract in which serfs worked for their owners instead of paying land rent and taxes. In terms of institutional theory it follows that serfdom prevailed in the Xia, Shang and Western Zhou Dynasties because the transaction costs of serfdom were lower than all possible alternative contracts under the prevailing conditions. It also follows that during the Spring-Autumn and Warring States Periods the transaction costs of serfdom began to exceed the costs of other possible contracts because of wider social changes. As a result, serfdom was gradually replaced by the private ownership of land and other more efficient contracts. This article seeks to clarify some of the conceptual issues relating to the application of institutional theory to understanding these processes in Chinese history. Its aim is to point to new research initiatives that could either confirm or reject the hypotheses presented here. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 69-86 Issue: 1 Volume: 28 Year: 2013 Month: 6 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2013.807552 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2013.807552 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:28:y:2013:i:1:p:69-86 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Dieter von Fintel Author-X-Name-First: Dieter Author-X-Name-Last: von Fintel Author-Name: Sophia Du Plessis Author-X-Name-First: Sophia Author-X-Name-Last: Du Plessis Author-Name: Ada Jansen Author-X-Name-First: Ada Author-X-Name-Last: Jansen Title: THE WEALTH OF CAPE COLONY WIDOWS: INHERITANCE LAWS AND INVESTMENT RESPONSES FOLLOWING MALE DEATH IN THE 17TH AND 18TH CENTURIES Abstract: Losing a household member is usually negatively associated with welfare, especially if that person is a breadwinner. Coping methods include disposal of assets to generate cash flow, while other households increase their labour supply. This paper considers a specific case in a pre-industrial society, presenting evidence where male mortality was associated with distinct benefits for widows. In the Cape Colony (during the Dutch East India Company occupation), Roman Dutch inheritance laws favoured widows, who were then able to set up households independently of their children. Their sizable inheritances (relative to other heirs) enabled investment in production assets with otherwise prohibitively high fixed costs (in particularly slave labour and vineyards) and resulted in divestment from other non-productive assets. While the mortality shock would presumably have had negative impacts on income and subsistence crop levels, this was not the case in the Cape: instead, reconstructed asset portfolios set widows up for productive, slave intensive farming and subsequent status and affluence. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 87-108 Issue: 1 Volume: 28 Year: 2013 Month: 6 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2013.805512 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2013.805512 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:28:y:2013:i:1:p:87-108 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Anna Carreras-Mar�n Author-X-Name-First: Anna Author-X-Name-Last: Carreras-Mar�n Author-Name: Marc Badia-Mir� Author-X-Name-First: Marc Author-X-Name-Last: Badia-Mir� Author-Name: Jos� Peres Caj�as Author-X-Name-First: Jos� Author-X-Name-Last: Peres Caj�as Title: Intraregional Trade in South America, 1912-1950: The Cases of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile and Peru Abstract: This paper assesses whether the disruption of world trade, protectionist policies and industrial growth that dominated South American economic history from 1912 to 1950 permitted an increase in intraregional trade. The paper demonstrates that during this period intraregional trade reached some of the highest levels of the entire 20th century. These levels have since receded. With the exception of some Brazilian exports, most of intraregional trade had the same features as global trade during this period: a high concentration on few products of very low value-added. These main findings suggest that, in contrast with other global experiences, intraregional trade did not directly support industrialization in South America during the first half of the 20th century. This resembles similar results from other Latin American studies, which remark that, beyond the rhetoric of regional integration and the signature of different trade agreements, few changes in the character of interregional trade emerged from the 1950s to the late 1980s (see Bulmer-Thomas (2003) and Devlin and Estevadeordal (2001)). In a time when intraregional trade is again at the forefront of the economic strategy of most South American countries (see Devlin and Ffrench-Davis (1999); Devlin and Estevadeordal (2001), and ECLAC (2011)), this finding certainly demands further study and explanation. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 1-26 Issue: 2 Volume: 28 Year: 2013 Month: 12 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2013.866379 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2013.866379 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:28:y:2013:i:2:p:1-26 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Aloysius Gunadi Brata Author-X-Name-First: Aloysius Gunadi Author-X-Name-Last: Brata Author-Name: Piet Rietveld Author-X-Name-First: Piet Author-X-Name-Last: Rietveld Author-Name: Henri L.F. de Groot Author-X-Name-First: Henri L.F. Author-X-Name-Last: de Groot Author-Name: Wouter Zant Author-X-Name-First: Wouter Author-X-Name-Last: Zant Title: The Krakatau Eruption in 1883: Its Implications for the Spatial Distribution of Population in Java Abstract: We investigate the impact of the Krakatau eruption in August 1883 on the spatial distribution of population across residencies in Java. The analysis is based on historical data of the indigenous population at residency level covering the period from 1880 to 1928. Based on our empirical analysis we conclude that the Krakatau eruption had no permanent impact on the spatial distribution of the population across regions in Java. The evidence gives support to the locational fundamentals theory. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 27-55 Issue: 2 Volume: 28 Year: 2013 Month: 12 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2013.866381 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2013.866381 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:28:y:2013:i:2:p:27-55 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Kris Inwood Author-X-Name-First: Kris Author-X-Name-Last: Inwood Author-Name: Oliver Masakure Author-X-Name-First: Oliver Author-X-Name-Last: Masakure Title: Poverty and Physical Well-being among the Coloured Population in South Africa Abstract: We review the social construction of race and the experience of relative poverty and ill-health among South Africa's Coloured population. We argue that childhood deprivation among Coloureds and race-based inequality in physical well-being, which is still visible today, began at least as early as the 1870s. The historical literature points to differences in morbidity and mortality between Whites and Coloureds before World War Two. New evidence from military reports of stature points to regional, socio-economic and urban influences on physical well-being which differed between Coloureds and Whites. Coloureds were much shorter even after adjusting for potentially confounding influences. The gap in stature changed very little between men born in the 1870s and those born in the 1920s. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 56-82 Issue: 2 Volume: 28 Year: 2013 Month: 12 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2013.866382 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2013.866382 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:28:y:2013:i:2:p:56-82 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Gavin Williams Author-X-Name-First: Gavin Author-X-Name-Last: Williams Title: Who, Where, and When were the Cape Gentry? Abstract: The "Cape gentry" has come to be conventional in descriptions and in analyses of the south-western Cape during the rule of the VOC (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie). Implicit in the idea of a "Cape gentry" are ownership of land and of slaves, degrees of inequalities, tenure and exercise of political office, and recognition of status honour, which were perpetuated over generations in networks of intermarried kin. This paper emphasizes the relevance of published statistics for interpreting changes over time in economic inequalities and social relations among the districts of the Colony. It sets out Mentzel's account of the four "classes" of rural society and ends by bringing into question the deployment of the idea of "Cape gentry" in analyses of the social structure in the Cape for lacking geographic and historical specificity. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 83-111 Issue: 2 Volume: 28 Year: 2013 Month: 12 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2013.866383 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2013.866383 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:28:y:2013:i:2:p:83-111 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Johan Fourie Author-X-Name-First: Johan Author-X-Name-Last: Fourie Author-Name: Leigh Gardner Author-X-Name-First: Leigh Author-X-Name-Last: Gardner Title: The Internationalization of Economic History: A Puzzle Abstract: The internationalization of economic history is everywhere except in the publication outputs. Using a new dataset of publications in the top four economic history journals, we investigate this puzzle and attempt to explain why relatively few papers on and from developing countries are published in top journals despite the growing internationalization of economic history more broadly. We find little evidence to suggest that this is due to a bias against papers on developing country topics and by developing country authors. Developing country papers and authors also do not perform worse in citation analyses. Authors from developing countries, it seems, are less productive, or discouraged from submitting their papers to top quality journals, choosing instead local journals. This journal aims to reduce this disparity. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 1-14 Issue: 1 Volume: 29 Year: 2014 Month: 6 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2014.922842 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2014.922842 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:29:y:2014:i:1:p:1-14 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Tirthankar Roy Author-X-Name-First: Tirthankar Author-X-Name-Last: Roy Title: The Rise and Fall of Indian Economic History 1920-2013 Abstract: The number of original articles published in Indian economic history shows a boom in the 1980s ending in a recession from the 1990s. The paper surveys the evolution of the field and explores the reasons behind these tendencies. It concludes that the trends reflect shifts in the popularity of archives-based research on economic issues among historians in India. Following on from a rise in the 1980s, in the last 20 years, cultural history crowded out economic history, and debates about the process of long-term economic change became rare. More recently, the link between comparative economic growth and Indian history has strengthened, leading to a modest revival. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 15-41 Issue: 1 Volume: 29 Year: 2014 Month: 6 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2014.922843 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2014.922843 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:29:y:2014:i:1:p:15-41 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Emmanuel Akyeampong Author-X-Name-First: Emmanuel Author-X-Name-Last: Akyeampong Author-Name: Hippolyte Fofack Author-X-Name-First: Hippolyte Author-X-Name-Last: Fofack Title: The Contribution of African Women to Economic Growth and Development in the Pre-Colonial and Colonial Periods: Historical Perspectives and Policy Implications Abstract: Bringing together history and economics, this paper presents a historical and processual understanding of women's economic marginalization in sub-Saharan Africa from the pre-colonial period to the end of colonial rule. It is not that women have not been economically active or productive; it is rather that they have often not been able to claim the proceeds of their labor or have it formally accounted for. The paper focuses on the pre-colonial and colonial periods and outlines three major arguments. First, it discusses the historical processes through which the labor of women was increasingly appropriated even in kinship structures in pre-colonial Africa, utilizing the concepts of "rights in persons" and "wealth in people". Reviewing the processes of production and reproduction, it explains why most slaves in pre-colonial Africa were women and discusses how slavery and slave trade intensified the exploitation of women. Second, it analyzes how the cultivation of cash crops and European missionary constructions of the individual, marriage, and family from the early decades of the 19th century sequestered female labor and made it invisible in the realm of domestic production. Third, it discusses how colonial policies from the late 19th century reinforced the "capture" of female labor and the codification of patriarchy through the nature and operation of the colonial economy and the instrumentality of customary law. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 42-73 Issue: 1 Volume: 29 Year: 2014 Month: 6 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2014.923154 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2014.923154 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:29:y:2014:i:1:p:42-73 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Felix Meier zu Selhausen Author-X-Name-First: Felix Author-X-Name-Last: Meier zu Selhausen Title: Missionaries and female empowerment in colonial Uganda: New evidence from Protestant marriage registers, 1880-1945 Abstract: Protestant missionaries have recently been praised for their comparatively benign features concerning their support of women's education in Africa. Using a novel dataset of 5,202 Protestant brides born between 1880 and 1945 from urban and rural Uganda, this paper offers a first pass at analysing empirically the role of mission education on African women's socio-economic position within the household. The paper finds that although mission education raised the sampled brides' literacy skills way above female national levels, they were largely excluded from participating in the colonial wage labour market. In this context, the missionary society presented an almost exclusive source of female wage labour in areas of religious service, schooling and medical care. While literacy per se did not affect women's marriage behaviour, women who worked for the missionaries married significantly later in life and married men closer to their own age, signalling a shift in the power balance between parents and daughters and between husband and wife. On average, daughters of fathers deeply entrenched in the missionary movement had the highest chances to access wage employment, emphasizing the importance of paternal mission networks for Protestant women's work outside the household during colonial times. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 74-112 Issue: 1 Volume: 29 Year: 2014 Month: 6 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2014.927110 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2014.927110 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:29:y:2014:i:1:p:74-112 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Martine Mariotti Author-X-Name-First: Martine Author-X-Name-Last: Mariotti Author-Name: Johan Fourie Author-X-Name-First: Johan Author-X-Name-Last: Fourie Title: The economics of apartheid: An introduction Abstract: Twenty years after apartheid was formally abolished it continues to shape South African society. Its legacy persists over and above interest in it as a perverse phenomenon. We therefore find it timely, as part of our introduction to this special issue, to review some important studies of the economic aspects, and particularly some newer research by young scholars. Since so much about the apartheid system remains unexamined, Economic Research Southern Africa (ERSA) organized a workshop in March 2013 to bring together people who work on the economics of apartheid. This special issue is partly the result of papers presented at this workshop or collaborations developed there. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 113-125 Issue: 2 Volume: 29 Year: 2014 Month: 12 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2014.958298 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2014.958298 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:29:y:2014:i:2:p:113-125 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Mats Lundahl Author-X-Name-First: Mats Author-X-Name-Last: Lundahl Title: Some stepping stones in the economic modelling of apartheid Abstract: After a review of some of the seminal empirical contributions to the study of the economic role of racial discrimination in South Africa, the essay compares and contrasts three different approaches to the formal economic modelling of the apartheid system, based on these contributions: the neoclassical approach which emphasizes gains and losses in terms of factor incomes, the public goods approach designed to deal with 'petty' apartheid, and the efficiency wage approach which models apartheid as an anti-shirking device. It compares the predictions of the different models with the historical sequence of racial discrimination in South Africa. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 126-145 Issue: 2 Volume: 29 Year: 2014 Month: 12 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2014.955274 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2014.955274 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:29:y:2014:i:2:p:126-145 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Anton D. Lowenberg Author-X-Name-First: Anton D. Author-X-Name-Last: Lowenberg Title: An Economic Model of the Apartheid State Abstract: Rather than a rigid racial ideology, it is argued that South African apartheid was a pragmatic response of a white oligarchy to changing economic and political constraints. Consequently, the degree to which apartheid principles were applied and enforced by the South African state varied over time. A public choice model is developed to explain apartheid as endogenous policy, the parameters of which are determined by political support-maximizing politicians. The model suggests that the enforcement of apartheid was responsive to changes in such exogenous variables as defence costs, the gold price and the reservation wage of black unskilled labour. Predictions of the model hold implications for the causes of the democratic transition of the 1990s, including the role played by international sanctions. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 146-169 Issue: 2 Volume: 29 Year: 2014 Month: 12 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2014.955270 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2014.955270 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:29:y:2014:i:2:p:146-169 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Lindie Koorts Author-X-Name-First: Lindie Author-X-Name-Last: Koorts Title: If neither capitalism nor communism, then what? DF Malan and the National Party's economic rhetoric, 1895-1954 Abstract: DF Malan is known as the Afrikaner nationalist leader who led the National Party to victory in 1948 and instituted the policy of apartheid. While much research has been done on the relationship between Afrikaner nationalism, apartheid and Afrikaners' economic interests, this article seeks to understand the Nationalists' mode of thinking by tracing their economic rhetoric - in particular the rhetoric of DF Malan, as one of their chief ideologues. It finds that from an early age, Malan's economic thinking reflected the interests of his class, i.e., as a rural, Cape Afrikaner. This entailed a concern for the interests of farmers and a desire for state protection, which was also tied to anxiety about the rising poor white problem at a time of increasing social stratification in the wake of the Mineral Revolution. Malan expressed an ambivalent hostility to both capitalism and communism: he believed that capitalism (in particular, South African mining capital) created inequality, which in turn gave rise to socialism, the result being class divisions and social unrest. This clashed with his nationalist worldview and his religious beliefs. When Malan entered politics, he joined the National Party, which from the outset expressed the same ambivalence. In the decades that followed, both Malan and the party would shift their weight from anti-capitalism to anti-communism, as the political issues of the day dictated. This ranged from populist anti-mining rhetoric and the threat to expropriate land from private companies, to the communist bogeyman, which formed one of the key tenets of the 1948 election. It reveals a fluid attitude towards the chief economic ideologies of the day, as well as a somewhat vague and opportunistic approach to economic policy. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 170-196 Issue: 2 Volume: 29 Year: 2014 Month: 12 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2014.955271 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2014.955271 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:29:y:2014:i:2:p:170-196 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Martine Mariotti Author-X-Name-First: Martine Author-X-Name-Last: Mariotti Author-Name: Danelle van Zyl-Hermann Author-X-Name-First: Danelle Author-X-Name-Last: van Zyl-Hermann Title: Policy, practice and perception: Reconsidering the efficacy and meaning of statutory job reservation in South Africa, 1956-1979 Abstract: Building on a long history of racially discriminatory labour practices, South African governments instituted statutory job reservation through the Industrial Conciliation Act of 1924, and extended its scope through Section 77 of its successor Act in 1956. Section 77, which provided for direct government intervention in reserving certain occupations for specific racial groups, attracted widespread condemnation from apartheid critics throughout its tenure, and has been vilified in the historiography as one of the cornerstones of racial discrimination in apartheid South Africa. This paper evaluates contradictions between the application of the job reservation policy in practice and its perceived power amongst sections of organized labour. We contribute to the discussion on job reservation in South Africa in two ways: first, by assessing the actual impact of Section 77 on racial employment practices, and second, by examining the reaction of certain groups of organized labour to efforts to scrap the policy from the late-1970s. It shows that the impact of job reservation determinations in the period 1956 to 1979 was very limited in practice - yet a number of constellations of minority workers strongly defended the policy because of the perceived protection it offered them as workers vulnerable to competition from African labour. We conclude that, in this sense, Section 77 primarily provided symbolic rather than actual job protection to organized labour. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 197-233 Issue: 2 Volume: 29 Year: 2014 Month: 12 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2014.955273 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2014.955273 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:29:y:2014:i:2:p:197-233 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Servaas van der Berg Author-X-Name-First: Servaas Author-X-Name-Last: van der Berg Title: The transition from apartheid: Social spending shifts preceded political reform Abstract: Given the nature of apartheid, social spending incidence figures were collected by race for many decades. An analysis of these figures shows an important structural break in racial patterns of social spending in the mid-1970s, with a major shift towards the black population. This left the post-apartheid government with much of the social spending shifts already accomplished, and relatively limited fiscal leeway. Nevertheless, it continued these shifts, with the result that South African social spending is now extremely well targeted. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 234-244 Issue: 2 Volume: 29 Year: 2014 Month: 12 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2014.955277 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2014.955277 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:29:y:2014:i:2:p:234-244 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Nicoli Nattrass Author-X-Name-First: Nicoli Author-X-Name-Last: Nattrass Title: Deconstructing Profitability under Apartheid: 1960-1989 Abstract: This paper discusses trends in South African profitability between 1960 and 1989 (the last peak year before the release of Nelson Mandela in 1990). It is argued that where distributional conflict is a persistent feature of the economic historical landscape, or is claimed to be of central importance (as is the case with regard to the radical 'cheap labour' theory of capital accumulation and growth under apartheid), examining trends in profitability and the underlying forces behind it may be of some assistance to economic historians. Trends in the profit rate can be linked to institutional transformation, and deconstructing the profit rate can help isolate the relative importance of the profit share and productivity in shaping the rate of return for capitalists. The empirical analysis finds that there were different economic factors at work behind trends in profitability between 1960 and 1989, and that Marxist claims about cheap labour being the basis for supposedly rising profitability and growth under apartheid are not supported by the data. Rather, the paper highlights the role of falling capital productivity as the key determinant of falling profitability - developments which suggests that investment in the late apartheid period was misdirected in significant ways. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 245-267 Issue: 2 Volume: 29 Year: 2014 Month: 12 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2014.955269 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2014.955269 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:29:y:2014:i:2:p:245-267 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Roy Havemann Author-X-Name-First: Roy Author-X-Name-Last: Havemann Title: The Exchange Control System under Apartheid Abstract: Exchange controls were part of a complex system of maintaining some financial stability during apartheid, particularly as the apartheid economic system began to implode, and the macroeconomy deteriorated. The centrepiece of the system was a complex system of multiple exchange rates, with residents and non-resident transactions taking place under different currency regimes, creating at different periods a 'blocked rand', a 'securities rand', a 'commercial rand' and a 'financial rand'. Exchange controls appear to have assisted the apartheid regime to maintain macroeconomic stability despite other poor policy choices. However, measured in terms of monetary independence and exchange-rate stability, even this was a mixed success. Much like apartheid itself, short-term economic benefits came with severe long-term political, social and economic distortions. Twenty years later, some of the distortions remain, and, indeed, some of the controls. This highlights the need for ongoing reforms to make the post-apartheid South African economy less distorted and more competitive, and to continue to develop a modernized system for managing external risks. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 268-286 Issue: 2 Volume: 29 Year: 2014 Month: 12 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2014.955276 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2014.955276 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:29:y:2014:i:2:p:268-286 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Roger Southall Author-X-Name-First: Roger Author-X-Name-Last: Southall Title: The African Middle Class in South Africa 1910-1994 Abstract: Contemporary interest in the black African middle class requires holistic attention to how this class has developed historically. In what follows, the origins of the African middle class are located in the efforts of Christian missionaries to create a literate, 'civilized' African elite. The resultant middle class was defined by its employment in professional, service and clerical spheres, and was noted for its orientation towards material improvement. However, confronted by racial barriers which stunted its opportunities for upward mobility, the African middle class played a key role in the establishment of the African National Congress (ANC). Although significant debate attends the extent to which middle-class leaders of the ANC connected with the masses during the inter-war years, there is strong for backing for the claim that the radicalization of the movement in the 1950s saw middle-class elements move into political alliance with the black working class. Thereafter, however, the banning of the liberation movements 1960 led the African middle class to lapse into political quiescence, although some of them pursued the limited advances offered by the bantustan programme. In turn, these were to be overtaken by political developments of the 1980s alongside accompanying reformist efforts to promote a collaborationist middle class within African urban communities. Ironically, this paved the way for the African middle class to line up behind the ANC, and for the ANC to become a predominantly middle class formation after 1994. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 287-310 Issue: 2 Volume: 29 Year: 2014 Month: 12 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2014.955275 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2014.955275 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:29:y:2014:i:2:p:287-310 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Katherine Eriksson Author-X-Name-First: Katherine Author-X-Name-Last: Eriksson Title: Does the language of instruction in primary school affect later labour market outcomes? Evidence from South Africa Abstract: This paper uses a change in the language of instruction in South African schools in 1955 to examine the effect of mother-tongue instead of English or Afrikaans instruction on long-term educational and economic outcomes. Using the 1980 South African census, a difference-in-difference framework allows me to estimate the effect of increasing mother-tongue instruction for black students from four to six years. I find positive effects on wages which I interpret as evidence of increases in human capital; these effects might have been larger in the absence of labour market discrimination against blacks under apartheid. I find positive effects on the ability to read and write, on educational attainment, and on the ability to speak English in predominantly English areas. I examine heterogeneous effects by region. This paper informs knowledge about the long-term effects of one aspect of a major apartheid education policy, the Bantu Education Act. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 311-335 Issue: 2 Volume: 29 Year: 2014 Month: 12 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2014.955272 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2014.955272 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:29:y:2014:i:2:p:311-335 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Waldo Krugell Author-X-Name-First: Waldo Author-X-Name-Last: Krugell Title: The Spatial Persistence of Population and Wealth During Apartheid: Comparing the 1911 and 2011 Censuses Abstract: This article examines the spatial distribution of people and wealth in South Africa over the period 1911 to 2011. Economic development is typically characterized by agglomeration, but Apartheid policies tried to separate people and disperse economic activity. Zipf's Law is used to examine the balance of these forces. The results show that Apartheid's interventions could not stop agglomeration, which seems to have continued to the point of over-concentration today. Wealth has become increasingly concentrated in places of initial white settlement and the large urban agglomerations. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 336-352 Issue: 2 Volume: 29 Year: 2014 Month: 12 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2014.957907 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2014.957907 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:29:y:2014:i:2:p:336-352 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Nonso Obikili Author-X-Name-First: Nonso Author-X-Name-Last: Obikili Title: Social Capital and Human Capital in the Colonies: A Study of Cocoa Farmers in Western Nigeria Abstract: I examine the relationship between social and human capital in colonial Western Nigeria. Using data on expenditure of cocoa farmers in 1952, I show that farmers in towns with higher social spending individually spend more on education. The relationship holds after controlling for various characteristics of the farmers and the towns. Thus I highlight the importance of social capital in generating human capital. I also show that this relationship is not limited to contemporary African development but was already present during the colonial era. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 1-22 Issue: 1 Volume: 30 Year: 2015 Month: 6 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2015.1012712 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2015.1012712 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:30:y:2015:i:1:p:1-22 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Lorraine Greyling Author-X-Name-First: Lorraine Author-X-Name-Last: Greyling Author-Name: Grietjie Verhoef Author-X-Name-First: Grietjie Author-X-Name-Last: Verhoef Title: Slow growth, supply shocks and structural change: The GDP of the Cape Colony in the late nineteenth century Abstract: The trajectory of South African economic development starts in the colonial economies. No systematic data exists on the Gross Domestic Product of the territories that formed the Union of South Africa in 1910. A comprehensive project to reconstruct nineteenth-century Gross Domestic Project (GDP) for the different territories can now report for the first time on actual Cape Colony GDP data. This paper presents the findings of reconstructed Cape Colony GDP according to the SNA. It confirms earlier estimates, refines very tentative projections of Cape Colony GDP during the nineteenth century and offers new insights into the nature and direction of the settler economy in the nineteenth century. It also pioneers data on the Cape Colony GDP and is the first in a series outlining nineteenth-century GDP of the territories that formed the Union of South Africa in 1910. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 23-43 Issue: 1 Volume: 30 Year: 2015 Month: 6 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2015.1012711 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2015.1012711 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:30:y:2015:i:1:p:23-43 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Ewout Frankema Author-X-Name-First: Ewout Author-X-Name-Last: Frankema Title: Labour-Intensive Industrialization in Global History: A Review Essay Abstract: In Labour-Intensive Industrialization in Global History, 11 leading economic historians explore whether East Asia's pathway into modern economic growth can be meaningfully characterized as a trajectory of 'labour-intensive industrialization', a route distinct from the North Atlantic capital-intensive path as well as the more diffuse paths of industrialization in the labour scarce regions of the Southern hemisphere. This review essay situates this collective volume in the wider literature on modern economic growth to stake out its main arguments. It proceeds with an integrated overview of the main chapters to discuss some of the shared conclusions as well as some of the internal disagreements. It concludes with some critical reflections on the viability of the concept of labour-intensive industrialization, as well as the possible implications for areas such as Sub-Saharan Africa, which have largely remained outside the global diffusion of modern manufacturing. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 44-67 Issue: 1 Volume: 30 Year: 2015 Month: 6 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2015.1035705 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2015.1035705 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:30:y:2015:i:1:p:44-67 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Erik Green Author-X-Name-First: Erik Author-X-Name-Last: Green Author-Name: Pius Nyambara Author-X-Name-First: Pius Author-X-Name-Last: Nyambara Title: The Internationalization of Economic History: Perspectives from the African Frontier Abstract: In an interesting and thought-provoking paper recently published by the Economic History of Developing Regions, Johan Fourie and Leigh Gardner ask why relatively few papers from developing countries have been published in top-ranked economic history journals. They provide a number of tentative answers of which differences in academic traditions between regions seem to be an important one. In this paper, we contribute to this discussion by putting the identified puzzle in the broader context of the development of economic history in the Western world and African universities. We fear that the silence from African scholars in top-ranked economic history journals might lead economic historians in the Western world to believe that little economic history research is taking place at African universities. The paper shows that economic history research at African universities is not only strong, but remained vibrant even when African economic history was on the decline at universities elsewhere. The lack of visible output in major economic history journals is thus not a sign of weakness. Instead it is an effect of the increased methodological specialization of economic history in the Western world. There is a danger that this specialization may led to regional isolation and we thus urge economic historians in the Western world to further engage in the work by African scholars. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 68-78 Issue: 1 Volume: 30 Year: 2015 Month: 6 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2015.1025744 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2015.1025744 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:30:y:2015:i:1:p:68-78 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Gareth Austin Author-X-Name-First: Gareth Author-X-Name-Last: Austin Title: African Economic History in Africa Abstract: This paper reviews the state of research in African economic history in tropical Africa, reaching a more pessimistic conclusion than Green and Nyambara. The subject has seen a renaissance in recent years but relatively few of the publications have come from authors based at universities between the Zambezi and the Sahara (the 'sub-region'). This discrepancy is not new, except in degree. It is partly attributable to resource constraints. But it also reflects both intellectual priorities and the way disciplines are organized. Economics departments in the sub-region have shown little interest in history, especially recently; while history departments are often wary of both quantitative methods and economic theory, reflecting a frequently strong institutional divide between humanities and social sciences. Further, while it is true that economic historians in tropical Africa have been less enamoured with mainstream theory and cliometrics than many of their colleagues elsewhere, on both sides this partly reflects insufficient awareness of others' publications. The paper proceeds to suggest ways in which economic historians inside and outside tropical Africa can collaborate to overcome segmentation in intellectual markets, which is desirable anyway and would probably lead to more contributions to international economic history journals from scholars based in the sub-region. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 79-94 Issue: 1 Volume: 30 Year: 2015 Month: 6 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2015.1033686 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2015.1033686 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:30:y:2015:i:1:p:79-94 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Jutta Bolt Author-X-Name-First: Jutta Author-X-Name-Last: Bolt Author-Name: Ellen Hillbom Author-X-Name-First: Ellen Author-X-Name-Last: Hillbom Title: Potential for Diversification? The Role of the Formal Sector in Bechuanaland Protectorate's Economy, 1900-65 Abstract: While Botswana since independence has experienced impressive economic growth and development this progress has not been accompanied by economic diversification and endogenous growth. In this article we focus on the colonial period and investigate to what extent the formal sector of Bechuanaland Protectorate (colonial Botswana) had the potential to constitute the basis for a diversification of the dominating cattle economy away from its dependency on exporting a single natural resource good - beef. We base our study on colonial archive sources and anthropological evidence which we use to: examine labour market structures; estimate welfare ratios and surplus; and discuss government spending. We find that the demand for skilled labour and human capital development was low throughout the colonial period and that the private sector generally lacked the economic strength and dynamics to develop alternative and/or complementary sectors. Further, we find no evidence of demand driven diversification, neither stemming from private sector consumption and investments, nor from government spending on economic activities outside the cattle sector, infrastructure and human capital development. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 95-124 Issue: 2 Volume: 30 Year: 2015 Month: 12 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2015.1066671 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2015.1066671 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:30:y:2015:i:2:p:95-124 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Indrajit Ray Author-X-Name-First: Indrajit Author-X-Name-Last: Ray Title: 'The Great Divergence' Revisited: The Case of Bengal in Early Modern Times Abstract: This study contributes to the literature on the 'Great Divergence' by analysing the historical roots of the economic slowdown in Bengal. It offers a critique of existing hypotheses insofar as they fail to account for the experience of Bengal sufficiently. In particular, emphasis on demographic-ecological crisis as an explanation of Asian regions falling behind seems inapt for Bengal. The paper proposes an alternative theoretical framework based on Adam Smith's understanding of pre-modern process of economic development, and especially the role of capital inflows. This alternative is tested against a detailed analysis of monetary and fiscal trends in early modern Bengal. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 125-156 Issue: 2 Volume: 30 Year: 2015 Month: 12 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2015.1071662 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2015.1071662 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:30:y:2015:i:2:p:125-156 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Klas R�nnb�ck Author-X-Name-First: Klas Author-X-Name-Last: R�nnb�ck Title: The Transatlantic Slave Trade and Social Stratification on the Gold Coast Abstract: The paper is concerned with the impact of the transatlantic slave trade on African economies. It focuses upon the case of the Gold Coast, studying quantitatively the impact on the social stratification of Gold Coast societies. The paper argues that the demand for provisions from the external slave trade was too small to have any substantial direct positive linkage effects for the development of commercial agriculture in the rural part of the Gold Coast. Some labourers in the coastal European enclaves experienced an initial temporary boom in living standards, but soon a period of decline took precedent. Only a small group of highly privileged, key employees were able to gain consistently from their positions working for the European slave traders. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 157-181 Issue: 2 Volume: 30 Year: 2015 Month: 12 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2015.1075384 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2015.1075384 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:30:y:2015:i:2:p:157-181 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Vishnu Padayachee Author-X-Name-First: Vishnu Author-X-Name-Last: Padayachee Author-Name: Bradley Bordiss Author-X-Name-First: Bradley Author-X-Name-Last: Bordiss Title: How Global Geo-Politics Shaped South Africa's Post-World War I Monetary Policy: The Case Of Gerhard Vissering And Edwin Kemmerer In South Africa, 1924-25 Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to highlight using international archives, the extent to which America's attempts to anchor its increasingly dominant global economic power and specifically the struggle between London and New York as the centre of global finance, impacted on the nature and character of the monetary policy advice given by these two international experts, as evident in their work on the Kemmerer-Vissering Commission. We show that Kemmerer, a representative of the rising new global economic powerhouse, the United States of America, and Vissering, a representative of a far less significant global player, the Netherlands, also with somewhat closer historical ties to Britain, were in fact instruments of these global dynamics, as they went about their work on the Commission. This global aspect of the narrative of the Kemmerer-Vissering report has not been highlighted by previous research. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 182-209 Issue: 2 Volume: 30 Year: 2015 Month: 12 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2015.1051027 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2015.1051027 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:30:y:2015:i:2:p:182-209 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Sarah G. Carmichael Author-X-Name-First: Sarah G. Author-X-Name-Last: Carmichael Author-Name: Selin Dilli Author-X-Name-First: Selin Author-X-Name-Last: Dilli Author-Name: Jan Luiten van Zanden Author-X-Name-First: Jan Luiten Author-X-Name-Last: van Zanden Title: Introduction: Family Systems and Economic Development Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 1-9 Issue: 1 Volume: 31 Year: 2016 Month: 3 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2015.1132625 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2015.1132625 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:31:y:2016:i:1:p:1-9 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Auke Rijpma Author-X-Name-First: Auke Author-X-Name-Last: Rijpma Author-Name: Sarah G. Carmichael Author-X-Name-First: Sarah G. Author-X-Name-Last: Carmichael Title: Testing Todd and Matching Murdock: Global Data on Historical Family Characteristics Abstract: This paper investigates the possibilities for the creation of a global dataset on family and household characteristics. This is done by scrutinizing and comparing two prominent data sources on family system classifications. We first focus on historical data, by comparing Emmanuel Todd's classification of countries by family systems with ethnographic data compiled in George Murdock's Ethnographic Atlas. Qualitative and quantitative tests show that the two datasets frequently agree about family traits. Nonetheless, substantial differences exist that are mostly attributable to the focus of the datasets on different regions, and the difficulties in translating local, descriptive studies to hard data. We therefore emphasize that it is important to know the strengths and weaknesses of the two datasets and emphasize that robustness checks are necessary in empirical research into family characteristics. We also compare these historical data with present-day data. This comparison suggests that family characteristics and the values associated with them can persist over long periods. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 10-46 Issue: 1 Volume: 31 Year: 2016 Month: 3 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2015.1114415 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2015.1114415 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:31:y:2016:i:1:p:10-46 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Lotte van der Vleuten Author-X-Name-First: Lotte Author-X-Name-Last: van der Vleuten Title: Mind The Gap! The Influence of Family Systems on The Gender Education Gap in Developing Countries, 1950--2005 Abstract: This paper argues that, by shaping everyday attitudes towards women and perceptions of their value and decisions about them, family systems explain part of the difficulty in bridging the gap between men's and women's achievement in education. The gap is more pronounced outside the highly industrialized nations, where affordable mass education is not the standard, and gender differences in educational attainment are markedly affected by persisting cultural norms. I test this hypothesis by examining family systems that have had a lasting effect on gender norms. I find evidence that family systems explain gender differences in average years of education in 86 developing and middle-income countries around the globe, for the period 1950 to 2005. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 47-81 Issue: 1 Volume: 31 Year: 2016 Month: 3 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2015.1114414 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2015.1114414 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:31:y:2016:i:1:p:47-81 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Selin Dilli Author-X-Name-First: Selin Author-X-Name-Last: Dilli Title: Family Systems and the Historical Roots of Global Gaps in Democracy Abstract: The current study investigates the role of ‘family systems’ as a historical institution in explaining why some countries have enduring democracy while others remained authoritarian despite the repeated global waves of democratization. To do so, empirical data including information on 127 countries between 1849 and 2009 has been gathered. The results of cross sectional and panel data analyses show that countries characterized by a nuclear household structure in the past also have higher levels of democracy in the long run (at the national level). Thus, the current study provides evidence for Todd's hypothesis on the origins of political systems. Moreover, family systems that determine the position of women are also found to be relevant for democratic development. The persistent effect of family systems on democracy can be attributed to their link with norms and values that are conducive to democracy, gender equality and local democracy practices. Overall, these findings emphasize family organization as an important historical factor in understanding the long-term global patterns of democratic development. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 82-135 Issue: 1 Volume: 31 Year: 2016 Month: 3 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2015.1109440 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2015.1109440 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:31:y:2016:i:1:p:82-135 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Bastian Mönkediek Author-X-Name-First: Bastian Author-X-Name-Last: Mönkediek Author-Name: Hilde A.J. Bras Author-X-Name-First: Hilde A.J. Author-X-Name-Last: Bras Title: The Interplay of Family Systems, Social Networks and Fertility in Europe Cohorts Born Between 1920 and 1960 Abstract: Despite important variations in regional family systems, little research has been done to assess the effects of these differences on fertility and thus on families’ economic status. Even less attention has been paid to the effects of deviating from these regionally embedded norms in terms of network compositions. People's social networks may not conform to the region's view of the ideal family, while this could have important implications for their fertility behaviour. To fill this knowledge gap, this paper aims to answer two questions: to what extent do family systems shape family size, and to what extent do deviations from regional family system norms in terms of social network composition result in differences in completed fertility? To answer these questions, we use the first two waves of the ‘Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement’ and derive indicators describing regional family systems and people's social networks. We test the influence of these covariates on the completed fertility of cohorts born between 1920 and 1960 in 13 European countries. Our results show that family system norms, and deviations from them in terms of specific social networks, play an important role in determining family size. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 136-166 Issue: 1 Volume: 31 Year: 2016 Month: 3 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2015.1109441 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2015.1109441 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:31:y:2016:i:1:p:136-166 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Anne Booth Author-X-Name-First: Anne Author-X-Name-Last: Booth Title: Women, Work and the Family: Is Southeast Asia Different? Abstract: In the literature on women and development, there has been a tendency to view the countries of Southeast Asia as less patriarchal than other parts of Asia. It has also been argued that patterns of female literacy and female employment in the Moslem-majority countries in Southeast Asia are different from those in Moslem-majority countries in the Middle East and North Africa. This paper reviews both the historical and contemporary evidence on the role of women in Southeast Asia paying particular attention to four indicators. The first is the extent to which women have been able to obtain employment outside the home. The second is their ability to gain access to at least sufficient education to give them literacy and numeracy. The third concerns their control over when and who they marry, and their fertility within marriage. The fourth concerns the extent to which Southeast Asian societies have been characterized by strong son-preference. The paper discusses whether Southeast Asia is different and the possible reasons for these differences. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 167-197 Issue: 1 Volume: 31 Year: 2016 Month: 3 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2015.1132624 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2015.1132624 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:31:y:2016:i:1:p:167-197 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Dónya S. Madjdian Author-X-Name-First: Dónya S. Author-X-Name-Last: Madjdian Author-Name: Hilde A.J. Bras Author-X-Name-First: Hilde A.J. Author-X-Name-Last: Bras Title: Family, Gender, and Women's Nutritional Status: A Comparison Between Two Himalayan Communities in Nepal Abstract: During the last decades, the focus of food and nutrition security research has shifted from issues of macro-level availability to problems of unequal access, and distribution within the household. Little systematic attention has however been paid to the role of family systems in household food allocation processes. This study focuses on the extent to which family relations, and particularly gender roles, in two Himalayan communities with different family systems influence intra-household food allocation, and the subsequent nutritional status of women of reproductive age (15--49). In-depth interviews were conducted with 15 Buddhist and 15 Hindu women, the latter belonging either to the higher Chhetri or lower Dalit castes. Additionally, anthropometric data of women were collected. Results show that women from Hindu families were worse off than women from Buddhist households in terms of nutritional status, which is due to different intra-household allocation patterns. Secondly, women's nutritional status varied over the reproductive life course. Women were most vulnerable during menses, pregnancy, and the post-partum period. Comparison with research conducted in the 1980s in this area suggests that the influence of family-level values and practices on women's nutritional status is slowly changing. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 198-223 Issue: 1 Volume: 31 Year: 2016 Month: 3 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2015.1114416 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2015.1114416 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:31:y:2016:i:1:p:198-223 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Jannie Rossouw Author-X-Name-First: Jannie Author-X-Name-Last: Rossouw Title: Politics and policies: Determinants of South Africa's monetary policy problems in the 1980s Abstract: The interim and final reports of the De Kock Commission (Republic of South Africa 1985) brought monetary policy in South Africa closer to the international consensus of the 1980s, where explicit nominal anchors supporting a policy commitment were widely shared principles. A nominal anchor for monetary policy was introduced for the first time in South Africa in 1986. Despite the adoption of a nominal achor, the 1980s were characterized by sustained high inflation and financial instability. This paper assesses the role of politics and policies in the period running up to and following the announcement of a nominal monetary policy anchor for South Africa. It is shown that all politics and policies contributed to financial instability and to sustained inflation in the 1980s. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 51-68 Issue: 1 Volume: 33 Year: 2018 Month: 1 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2017.1372187 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2017.1372187 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:33:y:2018:i:1:p:51-68 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Keen Meng Choy Author-X-Name-First: Keen Meng Author-X-Name-Last: Choy Author-Name: Ichiro Sugimoto Author-X-Name-First: Ichiro Author-X-Name-Last: Sugimoto Title: Staple Trade, Real Wages, and Living Standards in Singapore, 1870–1939 Abstract: This paper examines the impact of Singapore’s rise as a staple port on the city’s real wages and living standards during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, when this British colony acted as the heartland to surrounding hinterlands. Based on an analysis of newly reconstructed nominal wage and price time series, it is shown that real wages in Singapore fluctuated substantially over this period, rising and falling with the port’s staple trade in tin and rubber. As the city transformed itself into a commercial and financial hub during the interwar period, however, Singapore’s real wages rose, though this was accompanied by a widening skill premium. Compared to its peers in Asia, the city appears to have enjoyed a relatively higher average living standard before 1900, and possibly by the late 1930s as well. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 18-50 Issue: 1 Volume: 33 Year: 2018 Month: 1 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2018.1430512 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2018.1430512 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:33:y:2018:i:1:p:18-50 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Emmanuel Akyeampong Author-X-Name-First: Emmanuel Author-X-Name-Last: Akyeampong Title: African socialism; or, the search for an indigenous model of economic development? Abstract: Ralph Austen in African Economic History (1987) noted how few African countries explicitly choose capitalism on independence, and for those who did it was a default model or a residual pattern. ‘African socialism’ was popular in the early decades of independence and pursued by several countries, including Ghana, Guinea, Senegal and Tanzania, the cases considered in this paper. The term had multiple meanings, and its advocates were quick to stress that they were not communist, and some said they were not even Marxist. This paper explores the argument that African socialism was a search for an indigenous model of economic development for a generation that was justifiably ambivalent about capitalism, but wary of being put in the communist camp in the Cold War era. Importantly, advocates of African socialism often proposed bold and transformative visions for their countries. These visions might be worth revisiting, devoid of the paradigm of socialism. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 69-87 Issue: 1 Volume: 33 Year: 2018 Month: 1 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2018.1434411 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2018.1434411 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:33:y:2018:i:1:p:69-87 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Paola Giuliano Author-X-Name-First: Paola Author-X-Name-Last: Giuliano Author-Name: Nathan Nunn Author-X-Name-First: Nathan Author-X-Name-Last: Nunn Title: Ancestral Characteristics of Modern Populations Abstract: We construct a database, with global coverage, that provides measures of the cultural and environmental characteristics of the pre-industrial ancestors of the world’s current populations. In this paper, we describe the construction of the database, including the underlying data, the procedure to produce the estimates, and the structure of the final data. We then provide illustrations of some of the variation in the data and provide an illustration of how the data can be used. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 1-17 Issue: 1 Volume: 33 Year: 2018 Month: 1 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2018.1435267 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2018.1435267 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:33:y:2018:i:1:p:1-17 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Bas De Roo Author-X-Name-First: Bas De Author-X-Name-Last: Roo Title: Taxation in the Congo Free State, an exceptional case? (1885–1908) Abstract: This article analyses the annual budgets of the Congo Free State to examine whether the broader fiscal patterns observed for British, French and Portuguese Africa can be found in Leopold’s colony; often considered a fiscal exception. The fiscal history of the Free State was unique. A history of the income composition of the state however reveals that Leopold’s revenue-raising strategies showed a lot of similarity with colonial taxation in British, French and Portuguese Africa. Leopold’s administration faced the fiscal challenge of ruling a vast, thinly populated, inaccessible colony that produced little taxable surplus, with little metropolitan support and limited access to international lending. To deal with this challenge, the Free State developed a minimalistic fiscal system that was based on the taxation of international trade and the African subject. Only during a commodity boom did this system generate sufficient income to cover colonial expenditure. The study of the not so exceptional case of the Free State hence supports the claim that the colonial scope to tax African colonies was fundamentally determined by local economic conditions and power relations, global demand for commodities and Metropolitan pressure to be financially self-sufficient. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 97-126 Issue: 2 Volume: 32 Year: 2017 Month: 5 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2017.1327807 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2017.1327807 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:32:y:2017:i:2:p:97-126 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Lorraine Greyling Author-X-Name-First: Lorraine Author-X-Name-Last: Greyling Author-Name: Grietjie Verhoef Author-X-Name-First: Grietjie Author-X-Name-Last: Verhoef Title: Savings and economic growth: a historical analysis of the Cape Colony economy, 1850–1909 Abstract: The savings-development nexus is a topical issue in current development literature. No study has yet explored this relationship in nineteenth-century ‘South African’ colonies. An historical analysis of the development of the savings’ trends in South Africa may assist in understanding development trends in the twentieth century. Apart from general descriptions of the nature of economic activity in the Cape Colony very little is known about the role of savings and financial sector development in the growing colonial economy. This paper describes and surveys the nature of financial markets in the Cape Colony between 1850 and 1909 and seeks to explain the relationship between savings and economic growth. Savings is defined in the broad sense of monetary and non-monetary savings and would be assumed to be a proxy for financial development in the Cape Colony. This paper contributes to the economic history literature on the colonial past of South Africa by using recently compiled data on the GDP (Greyling & Verhoef 2015) as well as monetary savings and non-monetary savings (livestock) to test whether the general view that ‘financial development is robustly growth promoting’ can be substantiated in the last half of the nineteenth-century Cape Colony. The Johansen vector error correction model technique is applied to determine the relationship between savings and economic growth. It is found that despite the expectations in the literature that financial deepening contributes to economic growth, the Cape Colony did not display such causal relationship in the period under review. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 127-176 Issue: 2 Volume: 32 Year: 2017 Month: 5 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2017.1327808 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2017.1327808 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:32:y:2017:i:2:p:127-176 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: David Wuepper Author-X-Name-First: David Author-X-Name-Last: Wuepper Author-Name: Johannes Sauer Author-X-Name-First: Johannes Author-X-Name-Last: Sauer Title: Moving Forward in Rural Ghana: Investing in Social and Human Capital Mitigates Historical Constraints Abstract: There is now considerable evidence to suggest that historical events have had long-term impacts on economic outcomes in Africa. What is less widely studied is the potential for mitigating such impacts. We surveyed 400 pineapple farmers in Ghana and find that both the historical dependency on different crops and the impact of the trans-Atlantic slave trade predict income differences in 2013. However, not all farmers are affected equally by history. Using instrumental variables to identify causal effects, we find that human and social capital are pivotal for overcoming historically inherited constraints. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 177-209 Issue: 2 Volume: 32 Year: 2017 Month: 5 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2017.1330654 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2017.1330654 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:32:y:2017:i:2:p:177-209 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Paul Shaffer Author-X-Name-First: Paul Author-X-Name-Last: Shaffer Title: Seasonal Hunger in the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast, 1900-40 Abstract: There are ongoing controversies about the effects of colonial-era policies on hunger – and the nature of hunger in precolonial societies – in the Global South which have proved difficult to adjudicate because of the fragmentary nature of empirical information. The twin facts of the relatively recent incorporation of the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast into the British Empire (1896) along with an interesting assortment of data on hunger from the early colonial period allow for certain inferences to be drawn about these debates. The Northern Territories is an interesting case in that it is characterized by poor soil quality, variable and seasonal rainfall, minimal experience with cash crops, limited forced labour recruitment and the late introduction of direct taxation. Overall, the data do paint a picture of severe seasonal hunger in the early colonial period, circa 1900–40, but do not suggest that colonial policies or practices had a pronounced impact either way, pointing to the likelihood that seasonal hunger is a long-standing phenomenon which predates colonial rule. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 270-300 Issue: 3 Volume: 32 Year: 2017 Month: 9 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2017.1340093 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2017.1340093 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:32:y:2017:i:3:p:270-300 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Lars C. Bruno Author-X-Name-First: Lars C. Author-X-Name-Last: Bruno Title: Palm oil plantation productivity during the establishment of the Malaysian refinery sector, 1970–1990 Abstract: The Malaysian palm oil sector is an example of how a developing country can manage to establish itself as a world leader in the production and processing of an agricultural crop. This paper examines the formative period (1970–1990) of the Malaysian palm oil industry by focusing on the productivity at the plantation level, the first level of production, to understand how this process influenced the establishment of the higher value-added refineries. The paper finds that the official productivity figures, the oil yield (metric tonnes of crude palm oil per hectare), is inconsistent and estimates more consistent productivity figures. In addition, the paper briefly considers labour productivity as the Malaysian palm oil sector is more labour-intensive than its competitors. The main finding is that the improvements in plantation productivity were crucial for the development of the palm oil processing refinery sector, which might hold important implications for other developing countries wishing to promote agricultural processing industries. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 221-269 Issue: 3 Volume: 32 Year: 2017 Month: 9 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2017.1343660 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2017.1343660 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:32:y:2017:i:3:p:221-269 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Marianne H Wanamaker Author-X-Name-First: Marianne H Author-X-Name-Last: Wanamaker Title: 150 Years of Economic Progress for African American Men: Measuring Outcomes and Sizing Up Roadblocks Abstract: This article uses data on relative incomes to measure the economic convergence (or lack thereof) of African American men over time, and reviews current research in economic history on the struggle for economic equality for African American men in the United States since the end of the Civil War in 1865. The contents of this paper were originally presented at the University of Stellenbosch Laboratory for the Economics of Africa’s Past (LEAP) Lecture on 6 December 2016. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 211-220 Issue: 3 Volume: 32 Year: 2017 Month: 9 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2017.1371587 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2017.1371587 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:32:y:2017:i:3:p:211-220 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Federico Tadei Author-X-Name-First: Federico Author-X-Name-Last: Tadei Title: The Long-Term Effects of Extractive Institutions: Evidence from Trade Policies in Colonial French Africa Abstract: Despite having convincingly linked colonial extractive institutions to African current poverty, the literature remains unclear about which exact institutions are to blame. To address this research question, in this paper I identify trade policies as one of the main components of colonial extraction by showing their long-term effects on African economic growth. By using the gap between prices paid to African producers in the French colonies and competitive prices as a measure of rent extraction via trade monopsonies, I find a negative correlation between such price gaps and current development. This correlation is not driven by differences in geographic characteristics or national institutions. Moreover, it cannot be explained by the selection of initially poorer places into higher colonial extraction. The evidence suggests that trade monopsonies affected subsequent growth by reducing development in rural areas and that these effects persisted for a long time after independence. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 183-208 Issue: 3 Volume: 33 Year: 2018 Month: 9 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2018.1527685 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2018.1527685 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:33:y:2018:i:3:p:183-208 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Luis Bértola Author-X-Name-First: Luis Author-X-Name-Last: Bértola Author-Name: María Rey Author-X-Name-First: María Author-X-Name-Last: Rey Title: The Montevideo-Oxford Latin American Economic History Database (MOxLAD): Origins, Contents and Sources Abstract: The Montevideo-Oxford Latin American Economic History Database "MOxLAD" provides statistical series for a wide range of economic and social indicators covering the Latin American countries for the period 1870-2010. In this paper we describe the origins and the content of MOxLAD as well as some examples of the procedure to produce the estimates in order to achieve consistency and comparability of the data series, over time and between countries. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 209-224 Issue: 3 Volume: 33 Year: 2018 Month: 9 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2018.1532286 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2018.1532286 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:33:y:2018:i:3:p:209-224 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Luis Felipe Zegarra Author-X-Name-First: Luis Felipe Author-X-Name-Last: Zegarra Title: Were early banks important for economic growth? Evidence from Latin America Abstract: This article examines the available evidence from five Latin American economies (Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Peru) and determines the effect of bank output on economic growth from 1870 to 1920. By relying on a panel error-correction model, the evidence suggests that bank output had a significant long-term impact on GDP per capita. In the long run, an increase of 1% in the level of bank output per capita caused an increase of 0.2%-0.3% in GDP per capita. Compared to other studies, however, our estimates suggest a relatively low impact of bank output on GDP per capita. The results are robust to changes in the specification, in the sample, and in the method of deflating nominal variables. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 225-258 Issue: 3 Volume: 33 Year: 2018 Month: 9 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2018.1502036 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2018.1502036 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:33:y:2018:i:3:p:225-258 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Steven Nafziger Author-X-Name-First: Steven Author-X-Name-Last: Nafziger Title: Serfdom, Emancipation, and Off-farm Labour Mobility in Tsarist Russia Abstract: Serfdom is the most well known institutional feature of Russia under the Tsars, but its empirical implications for growth and development have rarely been explored. This paper investigates whether the legacy of serfdom affected labour mobility in the Russian countryside after Emancipation in 1861. I detail the structure of the reforms that ended serfdom and transferred property to the former serfs, and show that these measures did result in smaller land endowments, higher obligation levels, and possibly stronger communal restrictions than other groups of peasants faced in the post-Emancipation period. Drawing on a unique panel dataset of representative villages in Moscow province, I show how these differences were related to the scope of mobility out of agriculture between former serf and non-serf villages after 1861. Although the results suggest some persistence of constraints on labour mobility among former serfs, the observable differences in off-farm labour market activity largely disappear by 1900, despite persistent differences in land endowments between former serfs and non-serf peasants. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 1-37 Issue: 1 Volume: 27 Year: 2012 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2012.682377 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2012.682377 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:27:y:2012:i:1:p:1-37 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Qiang Chen Author-X-Name-First: Qiang Author-X-Name-Last: Chen Title: The Needham Puzzle Reconsidered: The Protection of Industrial and Commercial Property Rights Abstract: Various non-institutional hypotheses are insufficient to account for the Needham Puzzle, i.e. why the Industrial Revolution did not originate in China. This paper proposes that the fundamental cause of the Needham Puzzle is the weak protection of industrial and commercial property rights (ICPR) in historical China. Through a simple model, technological progress is shown to depend on the protection of ICPR, and evidence is provided to show China's weak protection of ICPR, demonstrated by a high real tax rate and its unpredictability, arbitrariness and progressiveness. The ICPR hypothesis helps explain why the Song Dynasty's early industrial revolution did not continue, and the peculiar de-urbanisation trend in the subsequent Ming and Qing dynasties. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 38-66 Issue: 1 Volume: 27 Year: 2012 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2012.682379 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2012.682379 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:27:y:2012:i:1:p:38-66 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Chiara Cazzuffi Author-X-Name-First: Chiara Author-X-Name-Last: Cazzuffi Author-Name: Alexander Moradi Author-X-Name-First: Alexander Author-X-Name-Last: Moradi Title: Membership Size and Cooperative Performance: Evidence from Ghanaian Cocoa Producers' Societies, 1930–36 Abstract: Using a complete panel of Ghanaian cocoa producers' societies in the 1930s, we investigate whether group interaction problems threatened (1) capital accumulation, (2) cocoa sales and (3) cooperative survival as membership size increased. We find evidence of group interaction problems. The net effect, however, is positive indicating gains from economies of scale as cooperatives expanded their membership. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 67-92 Issue: 1 Volume: 27 Year: 2012 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2012.682380 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2012.682380 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:27:y:2012:i:1:p:67-92 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Joerg Baten Author-X-Name-First: Joerg Author-X-Name-Last: Baten Author-Name: Julia Muschallik Author-X-Name-First: Julia Author-X-Name-Last: Muschallik Title: The Global Status of Economic History Abstract: How many economic historians are there? In which countries or regions are they concentrated? What can we learn from the number of economic historians participating in world congresses, and which determinants encourage or limit participation? Using an e-mail questionnaire, we analyse the discipline's global status. Overall 59 countries were surveyed in this overview. Although the majority of economic historians are concentrated in rich countries, developing regions do have a substantial number of practitioners. Cross fertilisation between development studies, development economics and economic history is bearing increasing fruit. It is therefore important to strengthen the discipline of economic history in those regions where development is the core issue. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 93-113 Issue: 1 Volume: 27 Year: 2012 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2012.682390 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2012.682390 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:27:y:2012:i:1:p:93-113 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Johan Fourie Author-X-Name-First: Johan Author-X-Name-Last: Fourie Author-Name: Stefan Schirmer Author-X-Name-First: Stefan Author-X-Name-Last: Schirmer Title: The Future of South African Economic History Abstract: Significant progress has been made recently in South African economic history, but much work remains to be done. In the pages that follow we set out a few potential paths of analysis based on developments within the broader discipline at the level of both methodology and theory. We highlight some of the more interesting developments and then offer suggestions as to how they could open up new avenues of exploration within the South African context. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 114-124 Issue: 1 Volume: 27 Year: 2012 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2012.682392 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2012.682392 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:27:y:2012:i:1:p:114-124 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Sophia Du Plessis Author-X-Name-First: Sophia Author-X-Name-Last: Du Plessis Author-Name: Stan Du Plessis Author-X-Name-First: Stan Author-X-Name-Last: Du Plessis Title: Happy in the Service of the Company: The Purchasing Power of VOC Salaries at the Cape in the 18th Century Abstract: This paper contributes to the debate on the level and trajectory of welfare at the Cape of Good Hope during the 18th century. Recent scholarship (for example, Allen 2005) has calculated and compared the levels and evolution of real wages in various European and Asian economies since the early modern period. To this literature we add evidence for unskilled and skilled workers of the Dutch East India Company at the Cape of Good Hope during the 18th century, following De Zwart (2009; 2011), who recently presented evidence for unskilled workers in the Cape for the latter half of the 17th century and the 18th century. We calculate job-specific real wages in a three-step argument; from the narrowest international comparison of wage rates in terms of silver content to one based on a basket of widely consumed goods. This paper adds to this literature by adapting the consumption basket for local circumstances (due to both diet and relative prices) and the comparison for local demographics. We also provide a broader range of comparative statistics on real wages. Finally, we add the real wages of skilled workers to the comparison of unskilled workers offered in the literature to date. While the paper is based on real wages for VOC officials the mechanism we identify as the cause of this rising prosperity (sustained lower prices of consumption goods) would have raised the prosperity of all colonists at the Cape. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 125-149 Issue: 1 Volume: 27 Year: 2012 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2012.682398 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2012.682398 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:27:y:2012:i:1:p:125-149 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Justine Burns Author-X-Name-First: Justine Author-X-Name-Last: Burns Author-Name: Malcolm Keswell Author-X-Name-First: Malcolm Author-X-Name-Last: Keswell Title: Inheriting the Future: Intergenerational Persistence of Educational Status in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa Abstract: This paper examines the changes in the educational attainment of three successive generations in South Africa: grandparents, parents and children. Many of the results accord with widely known facts, such as the educational penalty faced by individuals who are African or who live in rural areas or in female-headed households. Similarly, the larger impact of mother's education on child outcomes relative to father's education accords with previous work, although it is interesting that this gender difference is only sizeable and significant for relationships between the second and third generation. Key findings in this paper include the fact that persistence has increased with subsequent generations. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 150-175 Issue: 1 Volume: 27 Year: 2012 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2012.682403 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2012.682403 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:27:y:2012:i:1:p:150-175 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Johannes Fedderke Author-X-Name-First: Johannes Author-X-Name-Last: Fedderke Author-Name: Charles Simkins Author-X-Name-First: Charles Author-X-Name-Last: Simkins Title: Economic Growth in South Africa Abstract: This paper provides an overview of South African economic growth and employs modern growth theory to structure the historical record. The recent literature on growth is large and investigates the impact of a great many variables on economic growth. Constraints of space and information confine this analysis to the following core issues: the relative contributions of employment, capital stock and technological change on growth; the determinants of investment and hence of the trajectory of capital accumulation; the contribution of the financial sector and foreign capital flows; the contribution of human capital; the impact of monetary and fiscal policy; growth consequences of governance and institutions; and the functioning of the labour market and its impact on growth. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 176-208 Issue: 1 Volume: 27 Year: 2012 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2012.682408 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2012.682408 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:27:y:2012:i:1:p:176-208 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Bas van Leeuwen Author-X-Name-First: Bas Author-X-Name-Last: van Leeuwen Author-Name: Jieli van Leeuwen-Li Author-X-Name-First: Jieli Author-X-Name-Last: van Leeuwen-Li Author-Name: Peter Foldvari Author-X-Name-First: Peter Author-X-Name-Last: Foldvari Title: Human Capital in Republican and New China: Regional and Long-Term Trends Abstract: In recent decades it has been debated whether China’s growth performance is primarily driven by capital accumulation (more inputs) or rather by an increase in Total Factor Productivity (TFP) growth (better technology and institutions). The answer to this question may offer a glimpse into the future trends of China’s economic growth. If the perspiration factors are dominant, one should expect a slowdown in the growth of the Chinese economy in accordance with the traditional Solow model. If, however, TFP growth drives per capita GDP growth, one can expect a strong convergence of China toward the technological frontier. In this paper we combine historical, long-term analysis with quantitative methods to find out whether the effect of (both human- and physical) capital and TFP on growth changed over the last 90 years. While partly relying on existing data, lack of information required us to estimate a new dataset on human capital for the provinces of China between 1922 and 2010 which allows us to decompose the observed economic growth into accumulation driven and TFP driven parts. We find that general technological development improved steadily over the course of the 1990s and 2000s. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 1-36 Issue: 1 Volume: 32 Year: 2017 Month: 1 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2016.1261629 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2016.1261629 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:32:y:2017:i:1:p:1-36 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Jens Andersson Author-X-Name-First: Jens Author-X-Name-Last: Andersson Title: Long-Term Dynamics of the State in Francophone West Africa: Fiscal Capacity Pathways 1850–2010 Abstract: This study identifies and analyses common and country-specific patterns in the evolution of the state in francophone West Africa through a detailed comparison of long-term fiscal capacity between Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Niger and Senegal. The study finds common patterns of long-term growth in fiscal capacity in the four countries since the early colonial period, which is indicative of a process of long-term economic development. It also finds significant differences in the historical fiscal pathways between the individual countries in spite of geographic proximity and common colonial heritage, which can be explained by country specific variation in economic and political context and in particular the prospects of key export commodities. These differences provide reasons to be cautious about generalizations about the history of the ‘African state’ and its capacity. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 37-70 Issue: 1 Volume: 32 Year: 2017 Month: 1 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2016.1261630 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2016.1261630 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:32:y:2017:i:1:p:37-70 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Tirthankar Roy Author-X-Name-First: Tirthankar Author-X-Name-Last: Roy Title: The Origins of Import Substituting Industrialization in India Abstract: In the post-war world, India was one of the most protectionist countries. Protectionism originated in British colonial measures to design an industrialization policy in the 1920s. Whereas in the 1920s, protection was applied with discrimination, after independence in 1947, protection was offered without discrimination. The paper explains how this transformation came into being. It rejects the hypothesis now current that discriminating protection was dropped because it was a weak policy, and suggests instead that the aspirations of nationalistic businesses played a role. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 71-95 Issue: 1 Volume: 32 Year: 2017 Month: 1 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2017.1292460 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2017.1292460 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:32:y:2017:i:1:p:71-95 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Tymofii Brik Author-X-Name-First: Tymofii Author-X-Name-Last: Brik Title: Wages of male and female domestic workers in the Cossack Hetmanate: Poltava, 1765 to 1769 Abstract: This paper investigates wage inequalities among domestic workers in early modern Poltava (present day Ukraine), which was an important military-administrative of a Cossack Hetmanate, which was an autonomy within the Russian Empire. The data are derived from Rumyantsev census conducted between 1765 and 1769 (N = 1,109). While previous studies often measured domestic workers’ wages indirectly, this historical source contains direct information on their wages in rubles per year. The data suggest that age and social status shaped wages of domestic workers in early modern Ukraine. After the age of 29, wages of all domestic workers stagnated and after 40 wages declined significantly. However, male domestic workers of Cossack origin had higher wages when compared to peasantry, while median wages of married women were similar to that of peasant men, and young girls received higher wages than young boys. These findings open a room for a debate about economic power of male and female workers in early modern Ukraine on the dawn of the Russian Empire centralization. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 123-146 Issue: 2 Volume: 33 Year: 2018 Month: 5 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2017.1372186 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2017.1372186 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:33:y:2018:i:2:p:123-146 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Hana Nielsen Author-X-Name-First: Hana Author-X-Name-Last: Nielsen Title: Technology and scale changes: The steel industry of a planned economy in a comparative perspective Abstract: This paper provides an analysis of the role of technical advances and upscaling practices in the steel sector and the differences in these practices between planned and market-based economies. It focuses on the Czechoslovak steel sector, comparing it to other planned economies as well as Western economies. The primary method of analysis employed is the logistic-fit curve of technology diffusion, complemented with panel regression models. The paper draws two major conclusions: first, Czechoslovakia suffered from technological backwardness in the adoption of new steel technology with prolonged formation stage and high saturation levels as seen in some of the core steel markets. To some degree, this was due to the detrimental nature of central planning on new technology adoption. However, it was mainly linked to some specific characteristics of Eastern European markets, such as availability of scrap, the vintage of individual plants and the different structure of steelmaking costs. Second, the focus on Soviet-style large scale production was visible not only at the industry level but also at the level of the individual furnaces. It was this large-scale production that can be linked to improvements in relative energy efficiency – through economies of scale and learning-by-doing effects. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 90-122 Issue: 2 Volume: 33 Year: 2018 Month: 5 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2018.1432353 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2018.1432353 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:33:y:2018:i:2:p:90-122 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Piotr Łozowski Author-X-Name-First: Piotr Author-X-Name-Last: Łozowski Title: The Social Structure of the Real Estate Market in Old Warsaw in the Years 1427–1527 Abstract: The article examines the operations of the property market in late medieval Old Warsaw during a period of economic expansion. Two major professional groups (merchants and craftsmen) are distinguished to indicate fundamental differences in their interest in the property market. While craftsmen accumulated goods, merchants sought profit in a quick resale. In addition, the consideration of separate groups such as nobility, clergy, peasants, and Jews, and the analysis of the size of the urban market revealed that the property market in Old Warsaw was dominated by burgesses. The comparison of the number of transactions with the number of newcomers granted citizenship revealed a fact overlooked in the literature, i.e. that the vast majority of migrants had a low economic status and could not afford to purchase their own property just after arriving in the town. This suggests that the rental market played an important role in providing accommodation for newcomers. The analysis also shows the steady and dynamic development of the property market in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. This evidence conflicts with suggestions of an economic crisis affecting late medieval Polish towns, at least for Old Warsaw. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 147-182 Issue: 2 Volume: 33 Year: 2018 Month: 5 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2018.1471353 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2018.1471353 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:33:y:2018:i:2:p:147-182 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Leigh Gardner Author-X-Name-First: Leigh Author-X-Name-Last: Gardner Author-Name: Alex Klein Author-X-Name-First: Alex Author-X-Name-Last: Klein Author-Name: Mikolaj Malinowski Author-X-Name-First: Mikolaj Author-X-Name-Last: Malinowski Author-Name: Tamas Vonyo Author-X-Name-First: Tamas Author-X-Name-Last: Vonyo Title: EHDR and the economic history of Eastern Europe Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 89-89 Issue: 2 Volume: 33 Year: 2018 Month: 5 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2018.1484410 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2018.1484410 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:33:y:2018:i:2:p:89-89 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Jan Luiten van Zanden Author-X-Name-First: Jan Luiten Author-X-Name-Last: van Zanden Title: In Good Company: About Agency and Economic Development in Global Perspective Abstract: The paper discusses some evidence, based on a review of new literature on economic history, about what is coined the Sen-hypothesis, that increasing human agency (of both men and women) is a key factor in economic development. It briefly discusses various dimensions of agency (or its absence): slavery (as the absolute suppression of human agency), access to markets, agency concerning marriage, and political participation. This concept perhaps also allows economic historians to move beyond the historical determinism that is central to much recent work in this field. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: S16-S27 Issue: S1 Volume: 27 Year: 2012 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2012.657456 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2012.657456 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:27:y:2012:i:S1:p:S16-S27 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Tirthankar Roy Author-X-Name-First: Tirthankar Author-X-Name-Last: Roy Title: Beyond Divergence: Rethinking the Economic History of India Abstract: The interest of global historians in the non-western world tends to be driven by a desire to explain growing international economic inequality between 1800 and 2000. A preoccupation with the question, when the third world fell behind, results in a neglect of important characteristics of the economic history of the third world itself. A theory of international inequality can explain neither the recent economic resurgence in the economies of Asia and Africa, nor the highly uneven pattern of transformation within the larger nations like India. The paper suggests, with the Indian example, how these issues might be brought back into the discourse. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: S57-S65 Issue: S1 Volume: 27 Year: 2012 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2012.657458 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2012.657458 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:27:y:2012:i:S1:p:S57-S65 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Şevket Pamuk Author-X-Name-First: Şevket Author-X-Name-Last: Pamuk Title: Political Power and Institutional Change: Lessons from the Middle East Abstract: This paper focuses on the internal organisation of the societies of the Middle East and how that may have influenced the economic institutions to explain the economic trajectory of the region since the medieval era. Societies of the Middle East experienced a good deal of institutional change since the rise of Islam. While many of these changes were in response to the changing circumstances, they also reflected the social structure and prevailing power balances. Beginning in the medieval era and continuing with the Ottomans in the early modern period, political power was concentrated in the hands of the sovereign and the state elites around him. In contrast, the influence of various social groups, not only of landowners but also of merchants, manufacturers and moneychangers, over economic matters, and more generally over the policies of the central government remained limited. As a result, societies in the Middle East did not develop institutions more independent of the state and the state elites and more in favour of the private sector. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: S41-S56 Issue: S1 Volume: 27 Year: 2012 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2012.657481 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2012.657481 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:27:y:2012:i:S1:p:S41-S56 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Kenneth Pomeranz Author-X-Name-First: Kenneth Author-X-Name-Last: Pomeranz Title: Contemporary Development and Economic History: How do we Know what Matters? Abstract: “Development” involves increases in human and physical capital, plus institutional changes, that are characteristic of whole societies, not just particular sectors. Such changes are not necessarily well-reflected in GDP figures at the time that these changes are occurring – even assuming that we can measure GDP in historical societies with sufficient accuracy. Consequently, types of largely narrative long-run history focused on one or a few case studies are a vital supplement to more econometric and formally-modeled studies. They are particularly useful as correctives to historical work that aims at finding a single variable or event separating cases of developmental “success” and “failure.” However, the claims that emerge from such case studies are quite hard to verify. The article uses examples drawn from East Asia at certain moments a possible example of “failure,” but more recently assumed to be an example of “success” – to both identify historical findings that might have implications for contemporary development choices and to explore why such inferences are necessarily very fragile. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: S136-S148 Issue: S1 Volume: 27 Year: 2012 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2012.657483 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2012.657483 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:27:y:2012:i:S1:p:S136-S148 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Joerg Baten Author-X-Name-First: Joerg Author-X-Name-Last: Baten Author-Name: Matthias Blum Author-X-Name-First: Matthias Author-X-Name-Last: Blum Title: Growing Tall but Unequal: New Findings and New Background Evidence on Anthropometric Welfare in 156 Countries, 1810–1989 Abstract: This is the first initiative to collate the entire body of anthropometric evidence during the 19th and 20th centuries, on a global scale. By providing a comprehensive dataset on global height developments we are able to emphasize an alternative view of the history of human well-being and a basis for understanding characteristics of well-being in 156 countries, 1810–1989. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: S66-S85 Issue: S1 Volume: 27 Year: 2012 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2012.657489 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2012.657489 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:27:y:2012:i:S1:p:S66-S85 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Nicholas Crafts Author-X-Name-First: Nicholas Author-X-Name-Last: Crafts Title: Economic History Matters Abstract: This paper considers the future of economic history in the context of its relationship with economics. It is argued that there are strong synergies between the two disciplines and that awareness of the economic past is an important resource for today's economists. Examples are given that illustrate these points. It is clear that the past has useful economics but the potential value of economic history to economics will only be realised if economic historians are fluent in economics and organise the presentation of their research findings with a view to addressing questions that matter from a policy perspective. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: S3-S15 Issue: S1 Volume: 27 Year: 2012 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2012.657823 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2012.657823 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:27:y:2012:i:S1:p:S3-S15 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Anne McCants Author-X-Name-First: Anne Author-X-Name-Last: McCants Title: Public Welfare and Economic Growth Abstract: Adam Smith's focus on the needs and wants of the general consumer is only conceivable in a context in which the value of labour has increased much faster than the value of everything else. History suggests that this happens best in a context of public infrastructure investment and human capital cultivation. An economics that accounted for the overlooked contributions of care work to the production of the labour force; that recognised the output benefits of publically funded networks of social services; that valued time spent outside of paid work at more than the zero estimate that current GDP calculations assume; that supported spending on well-crafted infrastructure investments; and that valued for its own sake the quality of life available to all; would go a long way toward realising the hopeful vision that Adam Smith first articulated at the dawn of the age of modern economic growth. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: S86-S91 Issue: S1 Volume: 27 Year: 2012 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2012.657825 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2012.657825 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:27:y:2012:i:S1:p:S86-S91 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Stanley Engerman Author-X-Name-First: Stanley Author-X-Name-Last: Engerman Author-Name: Kenneth Sokoloff Author-X-Name-First: Kenneth Author-X-Name-Last: Sokoloff Title: Colonisation and Development Abstract: This paper describes the nature of European colonisation, particularly of the Americas, in the period from the 16th to the 19th centuries. It details the importance of slaves purchased from Africa in the settlement process. Although Spain was the first major European coloniser, its importance was supplanted over time by the British. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: S28-S40 Issue: S1 Volume: 27 Year: 2012 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2012.658660 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2012.658660 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:27:y:2012:i:S1:p:S28-S40 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Robert McGuire Author-X-Name-First: Robert Author-X-Name-Last: McGuire Title: Demography, Disease, and Development: An Evolutionary Approach Abstract: Emphasising the impact of diseases on history, the essay integrates demography, economics, evolutionary theory, and microbiology to explain the historical development of humanity and the economy, with specific application to American economic development prior to the twentieth century. The cultural development of prehistoric humanity is explained with simple demography in which the blooming of Paleolithic culture about 50,000 years ago also induced diseases of permanent settlements. A model of historical long-run growth incorporates transportation developments with cycles; one “virtuous” (expanding markets and specialisation), the other “vicious” (spread of diseases with increased trade). The New World conquest is viewed as almost entirely due to microbiology, evolutionary selection, and environmental conditions (climates and soils) as was the eventual peopling of different New World regions. American economic development prior to the twentieth century is considered the result of primarily demographic changes, transportation developments, and large-scale plantation slavery that combined to spread infectious diseases. This has implications for American economic development, Malthusian Doctrine, and issues of environmental degradation and sustainability. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: S92-S107 Issue: S1 Volume: 27 Year: 2012 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2012.660379 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2012.660379 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:27:y:2012:i:S1:p:S92-S107 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Walter Friedman Author-X-Name-First: Walter Author-X-Name-Last: Friedman Title: Predicting the Next Panic: The Pioneering Economic Forecasters and their Legacies Abstract: A market for predictions is part of any capitalist economy. In the U.S., the modern economic forecasting industry got its start in the early twentieth century. By elaborating on the “rules” by which economies function, forecasters provided ways to make sense of the very atmosphere in which businesses and investors operate. Like the development of routines for managing work within a firm, the popularization of forecasting models provided a sense of control over uncertainty. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: S127-S135 Issue: S1 Volume: 27 Year: 2012 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2012.663525 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2012.663525 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:27:y:2012:i:S1:p:S127-S135 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Nathan Nunn Author-X-Name-First: Nathan Author-X-Name-Last: Nunn Title: Culture and the Historical Process Abstract: This article discusses the importance of accounting for cultural values and beliefs when studying the process of historical economic development. A notion of culture as heuristics or rules of thumb that aid in decision making is described. Because cultural traits evolve based upon relative fitness, historical shocks can have persistent effects if they alter the costs and benefits of different traits. A number of empirical studies confirm that culture is an important mechanism that helps explain why historical shocks can have persistent impacts; these are reviewed here. As an example, I discuss the colonial origins hypothesis (Acemoglu, Johnson, and Robinson 2001), and show that our understanding of the transplantation of European legal and political institutions during the colonial period remains incomplete unless the values and beliefs brought by European settlers are taken into account. It is these cultural beliefs that formed the foundation of the initial institutions that in turn were key for long-term economic development. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: S108-S126 Issue: S1 Volume: 27 Year: 2012 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2012.664864 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2012.664864 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:27:y:2012:i:S1:p:S108-S126 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Grietjie Verhoef Author-X-Name-First: Grietjie Author-X-Name-Last: Verhoef Title: Introduction Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: S2-S2 Issue: S1 Volume: 27 Year: 2012 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2012.665265 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2012.665265 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:27:y:2012:i:S1:p:S2-S2 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Johan Fourie Author-X-Name-First: Johan Author-X-Name-Last: Fourie Title: The Roots of Development Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: S1-S1 Issue: S1 Volume: 27 Year: 2012 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2012.677580 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2012.677580 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:27:y:2012:i:S1:p:S1-S1 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Jeanne Cilliers Author-X-Name-First: Jeanne Author-X-Name-Last: Cilliers Author-Name: Johan Fourie Author-X-Name-First: Johan Author-X-Name-Last: Fourie Author-Name: Christie Swanepoel Author-X-Name-First: Christie Author-X-Name-Last: Swanepoel Title: ‘Unobtrusively into the ranks of colonial society’: Intergenerational wealth mobility in the Cape Colony over the eighteenth century Abstract: Intergenerational mobility studies are now expanding in three directions – including different regions and time periods, using different outcomes to measure mobility, and investigating the mechanisms that affect mobility. We investigate, for the first time, wealth mobility in the Cape Colony. We compare a number of outcomes, and consider several mechanisms to explain our results. Our data allow us to match at much higher rates than before, and also include daughters. We find very high mobility at the Cape and, in contrast to the existing historiography, higher rates for those at the bottom of the wealth distribution. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 48-71 Issue: 1 Volume: 34 Year: 2019 Month: 1 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2019.1574565 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2019.1574565 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:34:y:2019:i:1:p:48-71 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: A. G. Hopkins Author-X-Name-First: A. G. Author-X-Name-Last: Hopkins Title: Fifty years of African economic history Abstract: The article summarizes the evolution of the study of African economic history during the past half century. It does so, not by attempting to assess the mountain of evidence that is now available, but by identifying the intellectual impulses that have shaped the contours of the subject. Six main phases have influenced several generations of postgraduate students who have been drawn to the study of Africa: modernization theory, the dependency thesis, Marxism, the Annales school, postmodernism, and, most recently, the new economic history. The discussion identifies the common features of these schools as well as their differences. Entrants to the subject, it is argued, should take encouragement from past achievements, which have opened frontiers of knowledge and set standards, but they should also be aware that the latest is not necessarily the best, nor is it always as novel as its advocates commonly suppose. Familiarity with historiographical trends enables newcomers to relate their own work to that of their predecessors. In this way, they can find room to express their own individuality and ensure that their creativity carries the subject forward. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 1-15 Issue: 1 Volume: 34 Year: 2019 Month: 1 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2019.1575589 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2019.1575589 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:34:y:2019:i:1:p:1-15 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Maria Fibaek Author-X-Name-First: Maria Author-X-Name-Last: Fibaek Author-Name: Erik Green Author-X-Name-First: Erik Author-X-Name-Last: Green Title: Labour Control and the Establishment of Profitable Settler Agriculture in Colonial Kenya, c. 1920–45 Abstract: This article contributes to the growing literature on the impact of colonial legacies on long-run development. We focus on Kenya, where it is previously argued that land tenure and taxation policies created an impoverished class of wage workers leading to lower living standards, high inequality, and stunted economic development. We take issue with this interpretation. Using archival sources, we map the rise of profitable settler agriculture. Next, we correlate settler profitability with taxation and the development of African agriculture. Contrary to previous studies, we find that labour came from areas that became increasingly more commercialized. Thus, a decline in African livelihoods was not a necessary pre-condition for the establishment of successful European settler agriculture. Instead a restructuring of the settler agricultural sector coinciding with tightened labour control policies can explain the increased profitability. An increased cultivation of high-value crops raised the value of labour. Reductions of African mobility lowered both the wage and transaction costs of finding and retraining workers enabling the settlers to raise their profit share. Our finding calls for a revision of the colonial legacy of European settler agriculture for long-term economic and social development in Kenya. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 72-110 Issue: 1 Volume: 34 Year: 2019 Month: 1 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2019.1581058 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2019.1581058 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:34:y:2019:i:1:p:72-110 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Laura Maravall Buckwalter Author-X-Name-First: Laura Author-X-Name-Last: Maravall Buckwalter Title: The Impact of a ‘Colonizing River’: Colonial Railways and the Indigenous Population in French Algeria at the turn of the Century Abstract: Colonial railways eased settlement and altered the economic activity of the surrounding areas. Thus, they provide a good testing ground for the impact of settlement expansion. By taking advantage of unique territorial population data and digitized historical colonization maps in the Constantine region, this paper assesses the effect of railways on the indigenous population in Algeria during the colonial years. The indigenous population growth and density are first analysed in a cross-section multivariate regression framework that permits controlling for various forms of settlement. As a robustness check to the results, the paper implements differences-in-differences combined with a propensity score matching methodology that allow analysing the impact in relatively isolated areas where the infrastructure arrived later. The main conclusion of the paper is that, if settlement did have a positive effect on the indigenous population growth – as many historians tend to argue – it was channelled through railways only after 1900, when cereal cultivation improved, and the trade policy changed. The lack of significance before the 1900s is most likely explained by geographic-specific factors that limited the potential effects of railways. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 16-47 Issue: 1 Volume: 34 Year: 2019 Month: 1 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2019.1581059 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2019.1581059 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:34:y:2019:i:1:p:16-47 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Johan Fourie Author-X-Name-First: Johan Author-X-Name-Last: Fourie Title: Who Writes African Economic History? Abstract: Much has been said about the rise, or ‘renaissance’, of African economic history. What has received far less attention is who is producing this research. Using a complete dataset of articles in the top four economic history journals, I document the rise in African economic history in the last two decades. I show that although there has indeed been an increase in papers on Africa, it has included little work by Africans. I then attempt to explain why this is so, and motivate why this should matter. The good news is that, mostly owing to efforts by the academic community, more is being done to encourage African inclusion. I conclude with a few suggestions on how to make more African scholars part of the renaissance of African economic history. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 111-131 Issue: 2 Volume: 34 Year: 2019 Month: 5 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2019.1639500 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2019.1639500 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:34:y:2019:i:2:p:111-131 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Tawanda Chingozha Author-X-Name-First: Tawanda Author-X-Name-Last: Chingozha Author-Name: Dieter von Fintel Author-X-Name-First: Dieter Author-X-Name-Last: von Fintel Title: The Complementarity Between Property Rights and Market Access for Crop Cultivation in Southern Rhodesia: Evidence from Historical Satellite Data Abstract: Agriculture plays a central role in the efforts to fight poverty and achieve economic growth. This is especially relevant in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) where the majority of the population lives in rural areas. A key issue that is generally believed to unlock agricultural potential is the recognition of property rights through land titling, yet there is no overwhelming empirical evidence to support this in the case of SSA. This paper investigates access to markets as an important pre-condition for land titles to result in agricultural growth. Using the case of Southern Rhodesia, we investigate whether land titles incentivised African large-scale holders in the Native Purchase Areas (NPAs) to put more of their available land under cultivation than their counterparts in the overcrowded Tribal Trust Areas (TTAs). We create a novel dataset by applying a Support Vector Machine (SVM) learning algorithm on Landsat imagery for the period 1972 to 1984 – the period during which the debate on the nexus between land rights and agricultural production intensified. Our results indicate that land titles are only beneficial when farmers are located closer to main cities, main roads and rail stations or sidings. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 132-155 Issue: 2 Volume: 34 Year: 2019 Month: 5 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2019.1584526 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2019.1584526 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:34:y:2019:i:2:p:132-155 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Remi Jedwab Author-X-Name-First: Remi Author-X-Name-Last: Jedwab Author-Name: Adam Storeygard Author-X-Name-First: Adam Author-X-Name-Last: Storeygard Title: Economic and Political Factors in Infrastructure Investment: Evidence from Railroads and Roads in Africa 1960–2015 Abstract: Transport investment has played an important role in the economic development of many countries. Starting from a low base, African countries have recently initiated several massive transportation infrastructure projects. However, surprisingly little is known about the current levels, past evolution, and correlates of transportation infrastructure in Africa. In this paper, we introduce a new data set on the evolution of the stocks of railroads (1862–2015) and multiple types of roads (1960–2015) for 43 sub-Saharan African countries. First, we compare our estimates with those from other available data sets, such as the World Development Indicators of the World Bank. Second, we document the aggregate evolution of transportation investments over the past century in Africa. We confirm that railroads were a ‘colonial’ transportation technology, whereas paved roads were a ‘post-colonial’ technology. We also highlight how investment patterns have followed economic patterns. Third, we report conditional correlations between five-year infrastructure growth and several geographic, economic and political factors during the period 1960–2015. We find strong correlations between transportation investments and economic development as well as more political factors including pre-colonial centralization, ethnic fractionalization, European settlement, natural resource dependence, and democracy. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 156-208 Issue: 2 Volume: 34 Year: 2019 Month: 5 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2019.1627190 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2019.1627190 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:34:y:2019:i:2:p:156-208 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Mark Dincecco Author-X-Name-First: Mark Author-X-Name-Last: Dincecco Author-Name: James Fenske Author-X-Name-First: James Author-X-Name-Last: Fenske Author-Name: Massimiliano Gaetano Onorato Author-X-Name-First: Massimiliano Gaetano Author-X-Name-Last: Onorato Title: Is Africa Different? Historical Conflict and State Development Abstract: We show new evidence that the consequences of historical warfare for state development differ for Sub-Saharan Africa. We identify the locations of more than 1,600 conflicts in Africa, Asia, and Europe from 1400 to 1799. We find that historical warfare predicts common-interest states defined by high fiscal capacity and low civil conflict across much of the Old World. For Sub-Saharan Africa, historical warfare predicts special-interest states defined by high fiscal capacity and high civil conflict. Our results offer new evidence about where and when ‘war makes states’. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 209-250 Issue: 2 Volume: 34 Year: 2019 Month: 5 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2019.1586528 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2019.1586528 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:34:y:2019:i:2:p:209-250 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Arvind Ashta Author-X-Name-First: Arvind Author-X-Name-Last: Ashta Author-Name: Isabelle Demay Author-X-Name-First: Isabelle Author-X-Name-Last: Demay Author-Name: Mawuli Couchoro Author-X-Name-First: Mawuli Author-X-Name-Last: Couchoro Title: The Role of Stakeholders in the Historical Evolution of Microfinance in Togo Abstract: The paper traces the evolution of The Microfinance Sector of Togo over the half century from its independence in 1960 to 2010. The methodology uses oral histories, consisting of a round table discussion with heads of Microfinance Institutions as well as regulatory, supervisory and financing institutions and academics, followed by semi-structured individual interviews. We compare their diverse perspectives with the few archives and data that exist. We find seven stages in the development of microfinance from an unorganized sector consisting of tontines and usurious money-lenders in the 1960s to a considerably organized sector dominated by credit unions (COOPECs) and NGOs. The unorganized sector continues to play a role and the regulatory authority intervenes to protect the masses from unscrupulous and inefficient operators. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 303-344 Issue: 2-3 Volume: 31 Year: 2016 Month: 9 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2015.1114413 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2015.1114413 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:31:y:2016:i:2-3:p:303-344 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Mikołaj Malinowski Author-X-Name-First: Mikołaj Author-X-Name-Last: Malinowski Title: Market Conditions in Preindustrial Poland, 1500–1772 Abstract: In this paper I investigate commodity market integration, market efficiency and market performance in preindustrial Eastern Europe. In particular, I look at the Polish rye market between 1500 and 1772. I analyse annual rye price data from seven cities. The results suggest that market conditions in Poland in the sixteenth century were relatively favourable. The market disintegrated in the seventeenth century. Afterwards, Polish markets remained relatively segmented, in contrast to many Western European countries whose markets thrived in the eighteenth century. This supports the hypothesis that even before the Industrial Revolution there was the Little Divergence in economic development between western and eastern Europe. The disintegration crisis in Poland was linked to the separation of landlocked cities from the common market. After the seventeenth century, cities located on the Vistula river enjoyed better market conditions and remained better integrated than the landlocked ones. The long-term market crisis may have resulted from the devastating warfare in the mid-seventeenth century. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 253-276 Issue: 2-3 Volume: 31 Year: 2016 Month: 9 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2016.1175297 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2016.1175297 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:31:y:2016:i:2-3:p:253-276 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: José Aguilar-Retureta Author-X-Name-First: José Author-X-Name-Last: Aguilar-Retureta Title: Regional Income Distribution in Mexico: New Long-Term Evidence, 1895–2010 Abstract: Recent studies in economic history have investigated long-term changes in regional income inequality in various countries after their domestic markets have been regionally integrated. But this literature has focused mainly on developed economies. Evidence is needed from developing economies. This paper is the first investigation of Mexican regional income disparity over the long term, from the early stages of domestic market integration to the present day (1895–2010). The results show that, despite a persistent north-south income division and very low rank-income mobility, regional inequality has been N-shaped over the long term. This trend is closely correlated to the economic models adopted by Mexico since the late nineteenth century. Box-plot graphs and kernel densities suggest that the initial divergence was driven by rich states becoming richer and poor states becoming poorer, and the subsequent convergence by rich states’ incomes falling towards the national average and poor states’ incomes improving. Moran’s I coefficients show that the only statistically significant income cluster appearing over the entire period was the low income cluster formed by the southern regions. In other words, in Mexico, having rich neighbours does not bring a region prosperity. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 225-252 Issue: 2-3 Volume: 31 Year: 2016 Month: 9 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2016.1175298 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2016.1175298 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:31:y:2016:i:2-3:p:225-252 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Albert Mushai Author-X-Name-First: Albert Author-X-Name-Last: Mushai Author-Name: Agata MacGregor Author-X-Name-First: Agata Author-X-Name-Last: MacGregor Title: Insurance of Politically Motivated Risks Including Terrorism: The Case of South Africa Abstract: By world standards, South Africa’s experience with insurance of politically motivated risks, including terrorism, qualifies it as a leader in the area. In the late 1970s, the volatile political climate of the apartheid era forced the private insurance market to establish the South African Special Risks Insurance Association (Sasria), backed by the government, to insure damage caused by politically motivated acts, including terrorism. Since then, Sasria has developed into a key strategic institution. Yet academic literature on insurance of politically-motivated risks, riot, strike and terrorism in South Africa is sparse, despite its increasing significance in a world where terrorism is on the increase. This article attempts to fill this literature gap by firstly tracing the developments leading to the formation of Sasria, then examining the evolution of Sasria to where it is today. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 277-302 Issue: 2-3 Volume: 31 Year: 2016 Month: 9 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2016.1180957 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2016.1180957 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:31:y:2016:i:2-3:p:277-302 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Emmanuel Akyeampong Author-X-Name-First: Emmanuel Author-X-Name-Last: Akyeampong Author-Name: Hippolyte Fofack Author-X-Name-First: Hippolyte Author-X-Name-Last: Fofack Title: Special issue on ‘Africa and China: Emerging patterns of engagement’ Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 251-258 Issue: 3 Volume: 34 Year: 2019 Month: 9 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2019.1684691 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2019.1684691 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:34:y:2019:i:3:p:251-258 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Austin Strange Author-X-Name-First: Austin Author-X-Name-Last: Strange Title: Seven decades of Chinese state financing in Africa: Tempering current debates Abstract: Fierce debate persists among policymakers and researchers about the nature and consequences of overseas Chinese state financing. Developing countries in Africa are a major focus of this controversy. However, popular accounts are often devoid of historical context, and instead emphasize China’s emergence as a prominent aid donor since 2000. This article combines evidence on historical and contemporary Chinese development projects to revisit popular claims about the motives and effects of Chinese government financing in Africa. I delineate Chinese development finance to Africa into four periods largely based on China’s own development trajectory: the early years; revolutionary diplomacy; post-reform, commercially oriented development; and the current period of global engagement. I then revisit three controversial narratives about Chinese development finance to Africa: the ‘rogue donor’ label; the socioeconomic and political consequences for African societies; and potential debt risks for African governments. In doing so, I also review recent evidence using the data discussed in this article. On balance, incorporating historical and recent evidence on Chinese state financing produces a mixed outlook with reasons for both optimism and concern. This contrasts with popular, highly opinionated views on Chinese financing that often extrapolate specific episodes into continent-wide narratives. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 259-279 Issue: 3 Volume: 34 Year: 2019 Month: 9 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2019.1618183 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2019.1618183 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:34:y:2019:i:3:p:259-279 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Yuan Wang Author-X-Name-First: Yuan Author-X-Name-Last: Wang Author-Name: Uwe Wissenbach Author-X-Name-First: Uwe Author-X-Name-Last: Wissenbach Title: Clientelism at work? A case study of Kenyan Standard Gauge Railway project Abstract: Through investigating Kenya’s newly launched Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) project, this article explores the impact of clientelism on mega-infrastructure projects. This research traces the initiation and implementation of this Chinese-financed and -constructed railway in Kenya, based on over 100 interviews and triangulated with media and policy reports on SGR. We argue that clientelism had mixed effects on holding project management and the government accountable, conditional on the inclusiveness of the patron–client network. In areas where local people and businesses were included in the patronage system, for instance as constituents or trade union members, the patron–client networks held the project management accountable. The patronage system was conducive to corruption and oligopoly when the system only included elites and excluded citizens/businesses. In most situations we found that China has played a less influential role in the politics around the construction management than is generally assumed. This paper provides new evidence to the debate around clientelism and development in Kenya, and the conditions when patronage systems work for and against accountability. Moreover, this research advances the ‘African agency’ position in Sino-African relations literature by showing not only whether but also how Kenyan actors exercise their agency in interaction with Chinese counterparts. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 280-299 Issue: 3 Volume: 34 Year: 2019 Month: 9 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2019.1678026 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2019.1678026 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:34:y:2019:i:3:p:280-299 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Liang Xu Author-X-Name-First: Liang Author-X-Name-Last: Xu Title: Factory, family, and industrial frontier: A socioeconomic study of Chinese clothing firms in Newcastle, South Africa Abstract: This paper examines ethnic Chinese garment production and Zulu women workers in Newcastle, South Africa - a former border town between white South Africa and the black KwaZulu homeland. The established scholarship, while providing useful explanations for the arrival of ethnic Chinese clothing factories and offering valid critiques of South Africa's industrial policies, pays little attention either to Chinese business practices or their long-term impact on Zulu women workers' lives. Using both archival and ethnographic evidence, this paper argues that in response to harsh business and socioeconomic conditions, both the ethnic Chinese industrialists and Zulu women workers have creatively utilized and reshaped existing familial arrangements to operate factories and maintain stability as a workforce. It highlights the ways in which capitalist production transplants, adapts, and refashions its material and cultural forms on the frontier. In many ways, Chinese industrialists and Zulu women are not passive products but active shapers of the industrial frontier. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 300-319 Issue: 3 Volume: 34 Year: 2019 Month: 9 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2019.1669442 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2019.1669442 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:34:y:2019:i:3:p:300-319 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Grietjie Verhoef Author-X-Name-First: Grietjie Author-X-Name-Last: Verhoef Title: Frank Stuart Jones, 29 March 1933–19 October 2019 Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 1-2 Issue: 1 Volume: 35 Year: 2020 Month: 1 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2020.1711620 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2020.1711620 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:35:y:2020:i:1:p:1-2 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Suresh Naidu Author-X-Name-First: Suresh Author-X-Name-Last: Naidu Title: American slavery and labour market power Abstract: In this article I discuss the micro-economics of American slavery in light of recent research on monopsonistic labour markets. I argue that the defining characteristic of coerced labour, the threat of violence to prevent voluntary quits from a job, can be helpfully understood by contrasting it with free labour markets that are riven with imperfect competition and agency problems. American slavery looks closer to the textbook competitive model of labour markets than does free labour. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 3-22 Issue: 1 Volume: 35 Year: 2020 Month: 1 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2020.1734312 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2020.1734312 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:35:y:2020:i:1:p:3-22 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Tahir Andrabi Author-X-Name-First: Tahir Author-X-Name-Last: Andrabi Author-Name: Sheetal Bharat Author-X-Name-First: Sheetal Author-X-Name-Last: Bharat Author-Name: Michael Kuehlwein Author-X-Name-First: Michael Author-X-Name-Last: Kuehlwein Title: Post offices and British Indian grain price convergence Abstract: There is a large literature on the impact of railways on price convergence. Ignored, however, is the role of another potentially important network: post offices. By providing timely information on arbitrage and trade opportunities, post offices could also contribute to market integration. This paper tests that proposition in the context of British Indian grain markets. Rice and wheat markets in colonial India saw a broad convergence in prices during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Research suggests that railways mattered, but are capable of explaining only some of that convergence. This paper tests whether the spread of post offices also contributed to that price convergence. We find that it did, though the effects shrink in the presence of railways. Estimates suggest that between 1881 and 1911, post office growth reduced price dispersion by 20–24% of the total decline in Indian grain price dispersion. The precise mechanism through which these effects operate, however, is less clear. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 23-49 Issue: 1 Volume: 35 Year: 2020 Month: 1 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2019.1633304 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2019.1633304 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:35:y:2020:i:1:p:23-49 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Kenneth Button Author-X-Name-First: Kenneth Author-X-Name-Last: Button Title: Common markets and the decolonization of ‘British Africa’: The role of economics and economists Abstract: To facilitate an organized withdrawal from its African territories in the 1960s, the UK authorities undertook studies of the economic potential of each. What has been little studied is the nature and impacts of these exercises on subsequent policy. This paper looks at two such studies that examined ways existing ‘common markets’ in East and Central Africa could be retained after independence, and further developed. The institutions and structures governing the territories differed, one a common market and the other a fuller federation, as did the bodies conducting the analysis, one an official commission requiring public recommendations, and the other an advisory group to a senior government minister. The paper offers insights as to the way economists viewed common markets at the time, how they sought to quantify their economic benefits, and the ways in which these benefits were distributed across member states. It also considers the types of economic policy recommendations that were made and the reaction of the British authorities and the colonial politicians to them. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 50-70 Issue: 1 Volume: 35 Year: 2020 Month: 1 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2019.1669443 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2019.1669443 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:35:y:2020:i:1:p:50-70 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Ebes Esho Author-X-Name-First: Ebes Author-X-Name-Last: Esho Author-Name: Grietjie Verhoef Author-X-Name-First: Grietjie Author-X-Name-Last: Verhoef Title: Beyond national markets: The case of emerging African multinationals Abstract: Findings from research on emerging market multinationals (EMNEs) have posed some intriguing questions to scholars. While some of the questions are easy to explain through the lens of extant theories, others are more complex. Research on African multinationals is limited and being only a recent phenomenon, historical accounts of their internationalization is scarce. Early findings suggest that African firms exhibit distinct internationalization behaviour from other EMNEs. However, are EMNEs from Africa and their internationalization behaviour unique? This paper expounds the internationalization of three nascent African multinationals through the lens of extant theories and finds that multiple theories converge to explain their internationalization. Their distinct paths to internationalization come from their independent efforts in navigating Africa's diverse, and sometimes extreme, contextual challenges and opportunities. Alongside the global orientation of founders that originates from their education and experience, relationships from founders’ networks also play a dominant role in the internationalization process of African EMNEs. The conditions for business, especially for internationalization, in Africa are unique, and sometimes extreme. Institutional voids and informal markets, for example, are pervasive and huge. However, the African context enables a nuanced understanding of extant theories and the linkages between theories in explaining internationalization of EMNEs. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 71-97 Issue: 2 Volume: 35 Year: 2020 Month: 7 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2020.1757425 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2020.1757425 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:35:y:2020:i:2:p:71-97 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Calumet Links Author-X-Name-First: Calumet Author-X-Name-Last: Links Author-Name: Johan Fourie Author-X-Name-First: Johan Author-X-Name-Last: Fourie Author-Name: Erik Green Author-X-Name-First: Erik Author-X-Name-Last: Green Title: The substitutability of slaves: Evidence from the eastern frontier of the Cape Colony Abstract: The substitutability of the economic institution of slave labour has often been assumed as a given. Apart from some capital investment to retrain slaves for a different task, essentially their labour could be substituted for any other form of labour. This paper questions that assumption by using a longitudinal study of the Graaff-Reinet district on the eastern frontier of South Africa’s Cape Colony. We calculate the Hicksian elasticity of complementarity coefficients for each year of a 22-year combination of cross-sectional tax datasets (1805–1828) to test whether slave labour was substitutable for other forms of labour. We find that slave labour, indigenous labour and settler family labour were not substitutable over the period of the study. This lends credence to the finding that slave and family labour were two different inputs in agricultural production. Indigenous khoe labour and slave labour remain complements throughout the period of the study even when khoe labour becomes scarce after the frontier conflicts. We argue that the non-substitutability of slave labour was due to the settlers’ need to acquire labourers with location-specific skills such as the indigenous khoe, and that slaves may have served a purpose other than as a source of unskilled labour, such as for artisan skills or for collateral. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 98-122 Issue: 2 Volume: 35 Year: 2020 Month: 7 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2019.1669444 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2019.1669444 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:35:y:2020:i:2:p:98-122 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Klas Rönnbäck Author-X-Name-First: Klas Author-X-Name-Last: Rönnbäck Title: The business of barter on the pre-colonial Gold Coast Abstract: Trade on the Gold Coast in the eighteenth century was dominated by non-monetized barter trade. In this paper, a large dataset of barter transactions are used to study the social embeddedness of the trade. The data shows that prestige goods such as alcohol to a disproportionate degree were exchanged for other prestige goods such as gold. Guns – but also cheaper types of textiles – were to a disproportionate degree exchanged for slaves in particular. The evidence thus helps to shed light on the social valuation of various imported commodities on the Gold Coast at this time. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 123-142 Issue: 2 Volume: 35 Year: 2020 Month: 7 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2019.1694408 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2019.1694408 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:35:y:2020:i:2:p:123-142 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Rebecca Simson Author-X-Name-First: Rebecca Author-X-Name-Last: Simson Title: Statistical sources and African post-colonial economic history: Notes from the (digital) archives Abstract: While interest in African economic history has grown rapidly in recent years, the continent’s post-colonial past remains understudied. This is at least in part because of the decline and fragmentation in the publication of economic statistics after decolonization, which has limited the type and breadth of quantitative analysis that can be undertaken. Nonetheless, this note argues that there are comparatively untapped post-colonial data sources that could enrich the study of the continent's economic history. The note surveys some of these sources and data repositories and provides advice, based on the author’s own experiences, on how to utilize them. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 143-154 Issue: 2 Volume: 35 Year: 2020 Month: 7 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2019.1671187 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2019.1671187 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:35:y:2020:i:2:p:143-154 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Carles Brasó Broggi Author-X-Name-First: Carles Brasó Author-X-Name-Last: Broggi Author-Name: Jixia Ge Author-X-Name-First: Jixia Author-X-Name-Last: Ge Title: Planning China’s future: Liu Guojun's conception of China’s post-war economic recovery Abstract: Liu Guojun was a Chinese capitalist who owned textile mills in Republican China. During the war against Japan, his enterprises survived in several cities while he wrote essays about the prospects of China’s economic recovery. He developed a fine sense of the post-war world economy and participated in discussions about China’s economic development. In 1949 he decided to stay in the People’s Republic of China, continuing with his work in the textile business and entering the political administration of Jiangsu and the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce. During this transitional period, he wrote an economic plan for the development of China’s textile industry, specifying how this industry should nurture other economic sectors and help to improve both the standards of living and the education of the Chinese people. This article aims to discuss China’s late economic development through Liu Guojun’s publications and writings that have recently been available to scholars. The article suggests that Liu Guojun anticipated some key factors that drove China’s economic reform to succeed in 1978, such as the importance of light industries, given the resource endowments of the country and the situation of the post-war economic recovery. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 155-170 Issue: 3 Volume: 35 Year: 2020 Month: 9 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2020.1762172 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2020.1762172 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:35:y:2020:i:3:p:155-170 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Abel Gwaindepi Author-X-Name-First: Abel Author-X-Name-Last: Gwaindepi Author-Name: Krige Siebrits Author-X-Name-First: Krige Author-X-Name-Last: Siebrits Title: ‘Hit your man where you can’: Taxation strategies in the face of resistance at the British Cape Colony, c.1820 to 1910 Abstract: The topic of this article is the development of the tax system of the Cape Colony from 1820 to 1910. This period was crucial for the introduction and diffusion of modern taxes, and the Cape constitutes an important case as the prime settler-colony in Africa. The article uses a new tax dataset and evidence from official documents to trace and explain the Colony’s growing revenue problems during this period. It shows that few changes were made to the tax system from the annexation of diamond fields in 1877 until the end of the South African War in 1902 and that the public coffers mainly benefitted indirectly from the Colony’s increased prosperity via railway earnings. This, it is argued, largely reflected the success of efforts by the mining industry to block the introduction of new taxes. The article emphasizes the unusual form of this resistance: instead of undertaking conventional lobbying activities, industry representatives obtained positions of policymaking authority in the Cape Colony’s then still immature system of democratic institutions. Hence, it draws on the experience of the Cape to show that immature democratic institutions can hamper fiscal capacity-building. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 171-194 Issue: 3 Volume: 35 Year: 2020 Month: 9 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2020.1791699 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2020.1791699 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:35:y:2020:i:3:p:171-194 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Avni Önder Hanedar Author-X-Name-First: Avni Önder Author-X-Name-Last: Hanedar Author-Name: Sezgin Uysal Author-X-Name-First: Sezgin Author-X-Name-Last: Uysal Title: Transportation infrastructure and economic growth in a dissolving country: (Ir)relevance of railroads in the Ottoman Empire Abstract: In the nineteenth century, railroads brought a substantial shift in trade and production worldwide. While this motivated underdeveloped economies to massively invest in this transportation technology, the literature on the impact of railroads includes mixed findings from a historical perspective. Using a new dataset on the population of judicial districts and railroads in the Ottoman Empire between 1881 and 1914, we examine the relationship between railroad access and economic growth in the local economies of a developing and little-known country on the eve of the First World War. Our empirical results confirm the population size expansion in the areas affected by railroads. This impact could be connected with economic growth in the Ottoman Empire, leading to higher employment opportunities and fertility rates, based on the arguments of historical research. To deal with endogeneity problems, we use an instrumental variable (IV) strategy. Our 2SLS results also indicate the presence of causality from access to railroads to population growth. The paper contributes to the previous literature by offering new empirical insights on the long debated topic about how transformation of transport networks induced economic growth in an agricultural economy facing drastic changes during the first globalization boom. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 195-215 Issue: 3 Volume: 35 Year: 2020 Month: 9 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2020.1757424 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2020.1757424 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:35:y:2020:i:3:p:195-215 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Masataka Setobayashi Author-X-Name-First: Masataka Author-X-Name-Last: Setobayashi Title: The emergence and resolution of a quality problem in the Chinese tung oil market 1890 to 1937 Abstract: China experienced modern economic growth from 1890 to 1937. The expansion of foreign trade contributed to this economic growth. However, beginning at the end of the nineteenth century, dishonest practices, such as product adulteration, had been found in various transactions in China. In particular, adulteration was often a problem in the exports of goods from China. This article considers the reasons behind the emergence and resolution of a quality problem in the Chinese tung oil export market in the middle Yangtze Valley from the 1890s to the mid-1930s. Impure oil was customarily traded among Chinese in tung oil transactions; however, foreign merchants expected pure oil, which resulted in confusion in the market and a loss of business. Therefore, as the mixed oil problem became increasingly serious, market participants tried to create institutions to prevent adulteration. However, the formal institutions were not sufficient to resolve the problem until the 1930s. In China, the function of informal institutions complemented the imperfect functions of the formal institutions. More importantly, the institutionalization in the 1930s, which was associated to the Great Depression, was based on gradual change until the 1920s. Consequently, the quality problem headed toward a resolution in the 1930s. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 216-236 Issue: 3 Volume: 35 Year: 2020 Month: 09 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2020.1808457 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2020.1808457 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:35:y:2020:i:3:p:216-236 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Sédi-Anne Boukaka Author-X-Name-First: Sédi-Anne Author-X-Name-Last: Boukaka Author-Name: Giulia Mancini Author-X-Name-First: Giulia Author-X-Name-Last: Mancini Author-Name: Giovanni Vecchi Author-X-Name-First: Giovanni Author-X-Name-Last: Vecchi Title: Poverty and inequality in Francophone Africa, 1960s–2010s Abstract: The paper provides first generation estimates of poverty and inequality rates for three countries in Francophone Africa – Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, and Gabon – in the aftermath of independence. Sources – a large collection of historical household budgets – are new, as is the method that allows to connect historical sources to modern household budget surveys, and to deliver nationally representative estimates. The second part of the paper identifies the trend of poverty and inequality in Côte d’Ivoire for the years 1965 to 2015: mean income growth failed to reduce poverty during the 15 years of economic boom post-independence (1965–1979) because of increasing inequality. Conversely, in the following period (1979–2015) poverty changes are mostly guided by the evolution of growth. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 1-29 Issue: 1 Volume: 36 Year: 2021 Month: 01 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2020.1855974 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2020.1855974 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:36:y:2021:i:1:p:1-29 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Vladimir Chlouba Author-X-Name-First: Vladimir Author-X-Name-Last: Chlouba Author-Name: Jianzi He Author-X-Name-First: Jianzi Author-X-Name-Last: He Title: Colonial legacy, private property, and rural development: Evidence from Namibian countryside Abstract: Does the legacy of direct colonial rule, through its impact on property rights security, affect rural development in Africa? Although mainstream economic theory links secure property rights to development, extant micro-level evidence from the continent remains mixed. We take advantage of a natural experiment in Namibia, exploiting as-if random application of direct colonial rule that later affected property rights security. Using detailed census data and matching on underlying climatic conditions, we find evidence of more commercialized agricultural cultivation in directly ruled areas. We relate this finding to differing tenure regimes. In formerly indirectly ruled areas where land is still allocated by traditional elites, own-account agricultural activity for the market and living standards lag behind formerly directly ruled regions. Our work has direct implications for students of colonial legacies and land tenure regimes. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 30-56 Issue: 1 Volume: 36 Year: 2021 Month: 01 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2020.1858049 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2020.1858049 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:36:y:2021:i:1:p:30-56 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Carolina Román Author-X-Name-First: Carolina Author-X-Name-Last: Román Author-Name: Henry Willebald Author-X-Name-First: Henry Author-X-Name-Last: Willebald Title: Structural change in a small natural resource intensive economy: Switching between diversification and re-primarization, Uruguay, 1870–2017 Abstract: The increasing interest in economic diversification, technological sophistication, and production specialization again places structural change at the centre of the economic development theory. However, efforts to measure structural change from a long-run perspective remain scarce. We aim to fill this gap using a synthetic indicator that represents the dynamics of structural change in the long-run and allows us to identify different development patterns. We calculate this indicator including information on 13 production sectors, for a small natural-resource intensive economy (Uruguay), from 1870 to 2017. Our results adequately describe the development patterns that, according to the literature, characterize Uruguayan economic history. In the long run, economic growth causes structural change; only during the First Globalization period the opposite relation prevailed. The decline of the index – which indicates ‘backward movements’ in the production structure – is found in periods of economic crisis and downturn cycles. This dynamics reflects critical time periods associated with the (relative) primarization of the economy. In other words, near to each crisis episode, the economy reacted by going back to primary production probably due to the search for traditional comparative advantages or because in such negative phases the weakest and most exposed sectors were those other than agriculture. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 57-81 Issue: 1 Volume: 36 Year: 2021 Month: 01 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2021.1878457 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2021.1878457 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:36:y:2021:i:1:p:57-81 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Joseph Keneck Massil Author-X-Name-First: Joseph Author-X-Name-Last: Keneck Massil Author-Name: Sophie Harnay Author-X-Name-First: Sophie Author-X-Name-Last: Harnay Title: Parliamentary experience and contemporary democracy in Africa: A Northian view Abstract: In a series of pioneering works, Douglass North argues that the institutional innovations taking place in seventeenth-century England as a consequence of a modification of the balance of power between the Parliament and the Crown provided the conditions not only for economic growth, but also for the development of democratic institutions later on. Our article extends his analysis to the study of parliaments in African countries before and after independence. We find that countries in which parliaments were established prior to independence are more likely to have efficient democratic institutions today. We define a variable of interest, ‘parliamentary experience at independence’, and estimate its effect on a democracy index. Several sensitivity and robustness tests confirm our results that parliamentary experience at the time of independence is a determinant of democracy in African countries today. This corroborates North’s idea that history and institutions do matter. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 82-115 Issue: 1 Volume: 36 Year: 2021 Month: 01 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2020.1830758 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2020.1830758 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:36:y:2021:i:1:p:82-115 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Barry Eichengreen Author-X-Name-First: Barry Author-X-Name-Last: Eichengreen Title: Gold and South Africa’s Great Depression Abstract: In this paper I seek to understand the roots of South African macroeconomic outperformance since 1929 and whether it can be reconciled with what I have described as conventional wisdom about recovery from the Depression. Unsurprisingly, I find a way of fitting South Africa into that story. In addition, I try to understand better why, if going off the gold standard was so beneficial, indeed even more beneficial for South Africa than for other countries, it was so strongly resisted. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 175-193 Issue: 2 Volume: 36 Year: 2021 Month: 05 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2021.1891879 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2021.1891879 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:36:y:2021:i:2:p:175-193 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Johan Fourie Author-X-Name-First: Johan Author-X-Name-Last: Fourie Title: Macroeconomic history in South Africa: The South African Reserve Bank centennial special issue Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 117-121 Issue: 2 Volume: 36 Year: 2021 Month: 05 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2021.1930709 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2021.1930709 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:36:y:2021:i:2:p:117-121 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Cobus Vermeulen Author-X-Name-First: Cobus Author-X-Name-Last: Vermeulen Title: One hundred years of private shareholding in the South African Reserve Bank Abstract: The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) is one of only nine central banks around the world with private shareholders. This paper contributes to the understanding of this ownership arrangement by outlining the history and evolution of private shareholding in the SARB since its inception in 1921 to the present day. It considers the reasons for shares having been issued to establish the SARB, and changes in legislation which influenced the SARB’s ownership structure and the roles and responsibilities of the Board of Directors, shareholders and shareholder-elected directors. It also considers some earlier calls for the SARB to be nationalized. The historical overview shows that executive power has always rested with government appointees, while the government has gradually gained more control – relative to private shareholders – over the Board. This paper also confirms that – with respect to monetary policy – ownership of the SARB is purely notional. The SARB’s policy goals and executive powers are derived directly from the government and the Constitution, and neither the shareholders nor the directors appointed by shareholders have a say in the SARB’s mandate, its policy goals, or the conduct of monetary policy. The role of shareholders is limited to matters of corporate governance only. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 245-263 Issue: 2 Volume: 36 Year: 2021 Month: 05 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2021.1923399 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2021.1923399 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:36:y:2021:i:2:p:245-263 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Mariusz Lukasiewicz Author-X-Name-First: Mariusz Author-X-Name-Last: Lukasiewicz Title: Bourses, banks, and Boers: Johannesburg’s French connections and the Paris Krach of 1895 Abstract: The 1894/5 Paris boom in South African mining securities set forth the ultimate test of financial resilience for the South African Republic’s mining and financial sectors. The financial crash in Paris that halted the international boom in October 1895 exposed the globalized nature of markets for South African mining securities and their impact on colonial politics in southern Africa. This article reconsiders and qualifies the economic, financial, and political connections between South African gold mining and the Parisian capital market for the period 1887 to 1895. The Paris Bourse and its complimentary coulisse became the new loci of the South African mining market that ultimately crashed after the intervention of Johannesburg’s capital elites. Crucially for the future of the South African Republic, the Paris Krach set out the political circumstances for a direct confrontation between Johannesburg’s mining capital, British imperialism and President Kruger’s republicanism. Exposing new primary material gathered at the Archives Diplomatiques in Paris, the Paribas Group in Paris, the Central Archival Repository in Pretoria and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in Sandton, this article examines the globalization of South African securities, concluding the investigation with an analysis of the financial and political ramifications of the 1895 Paris Krach. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 124-148 Issue: 2 Volume: 36 Year: 2021 Month: 05 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2021.1882298 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2021.1882298 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:36:y:2021:i:2:p:124-148 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Gideon du Rand Author-X-Name-First: Gideon Author-X-Name-Last: du Rand Author-Name: Ruan Erasmus Author-X-Name-First: Ruan Author-X-Name-Last: Erasmus Author-Name: Hylton Hollander Author-X-Name-First: Hylton Author-X-Name-Last: Hollander Author-Name: Monique Reid Author-X-Name-First: Monique Author-X-Name-Last: Reid Author-Name: Dawie van Lill Author-X-Name-First: Dawie Author-X-Name-Last: van Lill Title: The evolution of central bank communication as experienced by the South Africa Reserve Bank Abstract: Communication has evolved into a cornerstone of central bank design and policy implementation. The South African Reserve Bank has been proactive in this regard as well – most notably with the adoption of inflation targeting in 2001. Using novel text-mining techniques, we evaluate the communication of the SARB, as presented via public speeches and monetary policy committee (MPC) statements, in the context of historical developments from 1994 to 2020. Our analysis focuses on the volume, complexity, scope, and sentiment of communication. We conclude that MPC statements are consistently and narrowly focused on the mandate, whereas speeches capture more detail about how the thinking of SARB policy makers evolves over time. In both cases, communication serves as a channel to reduce uncertainty and build credibility in the public domain. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 282-312 Issue: 2 Volume: 36 Year: 2021 Month: 05 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2021.1925106 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2021.1925106 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:36:y:2021:i:2:p:282-312 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Bradley Bordiss Author-X-Name-First: Bradley Author-X-Name-Last: Bordiss Author-Name: Jannie Rossouw Author-X-Name-First: Jannie Author-X-Name-Last: Rossouw Title: Professor Vishnu Padayachee, 1952–2021 Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 122-123 Issue: 2 Volume: 36 Year: 2021 Month: 05 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2021.1940490 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2021.1940490 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:36:y:2021:i:2:p:122-123 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Bradley Bordiss Author-X-Name-First: Bradley Author-X-Name-Last: Bordiss Author-Name: Vishnu Padayachee Author-X-Name-First: Vishnu Author-X-Name-Last: Padayachee Author-Name: Jannie Rossouw Author-X-Name-First: Jannie Author-X-Name-Last: Rossouw Title: Two of the most eventful years in the history of the South African Reserve Bank: William Henry Clegg and Johannes Postmus and the 1931–1932 crisis Abstract: The SA Reserve Bank (SARB) was created as a result of an earlier gold standard monetary crisis that unfolded after World War I. From 1919, South Africa nominally maintained the gold standard, but not the conversion of banknotes into gold.This article seeks to discuss the SARB's views on the gold standard controversy, and to highlight the different attitudes of the first two governors, Clegg and Postmus, attitudes that have not previously been examined in the literature. It will also discuss the way in which the Bank of England misled Clegg, and how the views expressed privately differed from those in the SARB's Ordinary General Meeting (OGM) documentation.This paper considers the irony that Clegg was selected from the ranks of the Bank of England and was loyal to Threadneedle Street, but defended a monetary policy which aided one of the biggest constituencies of the Afrikaner Nationalist Party – Afrikaner farmers. By contrast, Postmus was previously at the Nederlandsche Bankvoor Zuid-Afrika, and supported the National Party position that South Africa should return to, and remain on, a gold standard independent of Britain. Despite this, Postmus's policy turned out to be disastrous for the mostly Afrikaner farmers affected by the 1931–1932 crisis. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 194-212 Issue: 2 Volume: 36 Year: 2021 Month: 05 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2021.1927697 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2021.1927697 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:36:y:2021:i:2:p:194-212 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Christie Swanepoel Author-X-Name-First: Christie Author-X-Name-Last: Swanepoel Author-Name: Philip T. Fliers Author-X-Name-First: Philip T. Author-X-Name-Last: Fliers Title: The fuel of unparalleled recovery: Monetary policy in South Africa between 1925 and 1936 Abstract: The newly established South African Reserve Bank (SARB) was tasked to protect the currency by navigating the interwar gold standard, and, from March 1933, maintaining parity with the Pound Sterling. We find that South Africa’s exit from gold secured an unparalleled and rapid recovery from the Great Depression. South Africa’s exit was accompanied by an inextricable link of the SARB’s policy rate to the interest rate set by the Bank of England (BoE). This sacrifice of independent monetary policy allowed the SARB to fix the country’s exchange rate without impeding the flow of gold to London. The SARB fuelled the economy by reducing its policy rates and accumulating gold. Had South Africa not devalued, the country would have suffered a severe depression and persistent deflation. An alternative to the devaluation was for the SARB to pursue a cheap money strategy. By setting interest rates historically low, we find that South Africa could have achieved higher levels of economic growth, at the cost of higher inflation. Ultimately, South Africa’s unparalleled recovery can be ascribed to the devaluation; however the change in the SARB monetary policy and the bank’s control over the gold markets were of paramount importance. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 213-244 Issue: 2 Volume: 36 Year: 2021 Month: 05 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2021.1945436 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2021.1945436 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:36:y:2021:i:2:p:213-244 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Lloyd Melusi Maphosa Author-X-Name-First: Lloyd Melusi Author-X-Name-Last: Maphosa Author-Name: Anton Ehlers Author-X-Name-First: Anton Author-X-Name-Last: Ehlers Author-Name: Johan Fourie Author-X-Name-First: Johan Author-X-Name-Last: Fourie Author-Name: Edward M. Kerby Author-X-Name-First: Edward M. Author-X-Name-Last: Kerby Title: The growth and diversity of the Cape private capital market, 1892–1902 Abstract: The adoption of limited liability in the nineteenth century is considered to have boosted economic growth and expanded capital markets in Europe and North America. Despite similar legal changes in frontier markets such as South Africa, very few attempts have been made to analyse the economic effects thereof. After the Cape Joint Stock Company Act No. 25 of 1892 there was an upsurge in new joint stock companies in the Cape Colony, but little is known about the people who financed them. This study is an enquiry into who they were. Using a list of 6883 shareholders from 263 companies, we show that the Cape’s sources of private capital were a diverse group of people. Unlike previous studies, we find that most capital came from the middle class at the Cape and very little from foreign investors. The paper contributes to our understanding of early financial developments on the frontier and the evolution of capitalism at the Cape. It also contributes broadly to the economic and business history of the late nineteenth- and twentieth-century Cape. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 149-174 Issue: 2 Volume: 36 Year: 2021 Month: 05 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2021.1943347 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2021.1943347 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:36:y:2021:i:2:p:149-174 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Roy Havemann Author-X-Name-First: Roy Author-X-Name-Last: Havemann Title: The South African small banks’ crisis of 2002/3 Abstract: Following the collapse of Saambou bank in February 2002, contagion rapidly spread amongst South African small and medium-sized banks. By the end of 2003, half of the country’s banks had deregistered. The paper constructs a unique monthly bank-level data set to show that the banks that failed were those with short-term liabilities from other financial institutions. An initial delay in providing liquidity to solvent banks in distress and raising interest rates may have exacerbated the crisis. The need for prompt, swift action echoes lessons from banking panics throughout history. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 313-338 Issue: 2 Volume: 36 Year: 2021 Month: 05 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2021.1943348 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2021.1943348 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:36:y:2021:i:2:p:313-338 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Hylton Hollander Author-X-Name-First: Hylton Author-X-Name-Last: Hollander Author-Name: Roy Havemann Author-X-Name-First: Roy Author-X-Name-Last: Havemann Title: South Africa’s 2003–2013 credit boom and bust: Lessons for macroprudential policy Abstract: We evaluate South African financial stability policy from 2003 to 2013 – the country’s most significant credit boom and bust cycle. This cycle overlapped with both rising bank capital adequacy ratios and the global financial crisis of 2007/8. We use a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model to identify South African Reserve Bank (SARB) interventions and run counterfactual policy scenarios. We document two instances of policy inaction. Our counterfactual scenarios suggest that, with the benefit of hindsight, the SARB took the correct steps to raise capital requirements during the credit boom, but could have persisted with raising capital requirements for longer (past 2004), and could have adopted a looser policy stance after the global financial crisis to mitigate the credit bust. Our findings reaffirm the importance of counter-cyclical action, the usefulness of bank capital as a buffer against unexpected shocks to build financial sector resilience, and the need for independent but close coordination between monetary and macroprudential policy. In addition, because of structural differences between household and firm credit, the SARB should consider buttressing the uniform countercyclical capital buffer with sector-specific capital requirements. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 339-365 Issue: 2 Volume: 36 Year: 2021 Month: 05 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2021.1938532 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2021.1938532 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:36:y:2021:i:2:p:339-365 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Ellen Feingold Author-X-Name-First: Ellen Author-X-Name-Last: Feingold Author-Name: Johan Fourie Author-X-Name-First: Johan Author-X-Name-Last: Fourie Author-Name: Leigh Gardner Author-X-Name-First: Leigh Author-X-Name-Last: Gardner Title: A tale of paper and gold: The material history of money in South Africa Abstract: This paper uses the South African objects in the National Numismatic Collection of the Smithsonian to tell a new material history of money in South Africa. In other parts of the continent, research about the currencies in use and how these changed over time have offered a new perspective on the impact of colonialism, commercialization, and the rise of state capacity. South Africa, and southern Africa more generally, has remained on the periphery of these debates. This paper begins to fill this gap. It shows that even in Africa’s most financially developed region, the process of establishing a stable national currency was long and halting, reflecting struggles over South Africa’s relationship with the global economy and the rise and fall of apartheid. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 264-281 Issue: 2 Volume: 36 Year: 2021 Month: 05 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2021.1926232 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2021.1926232 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:36:y:2021:i:2:p:264-281 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Joyce Burnette Author-X-Name-First: Joyce Author-X-Name-Last: Burnette Title: Why we shouldn’t measure women’s labour force participation in pre-industrial countries Abstract: Labour force participation was designed to measure contemporary labour markets, and does a poor job of measuring work, particularly women’s work, in the past. When we measure labour force participation we ignore production for household use, ignore differences in the intensity of work, and assume a continuity of employment that did not characterize most historical work. Therefore, I suggest that we should not use labour force participation to measure women’s work outside of modern, industrialized societies. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 422-427 Issue: 3 Volume: 36 Year: 2021 Month: 09 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2021.1929602 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2021.1929602 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:36:y:2021:i:3:p:422-427 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Maria Eugénia Mata Author-X-Name-First: Maria Eugénia Author-X-Name-Last: Mata Author-Name: Luís Catela Nunes Author-X-Name-First: Luís Catela Author-X-Name-Last: Nunes Author-Name: Mário Roldão Author-X-Name-First: Mário Author-X-Name-Last: Roldão Title: The Portuguese escudo area in Africa and its lessons for monetary unions Abstract: The beginnings of the Portuguese Escudo Monetary Zone (EMZ) in 1961, to promote the economic integration of Portugal and its empire, coincide in time with Mundell’s seminal paper about optimum currency areas. If non-optimality was the cause of the EMZ’s demise, this would suggest that monetary unions are fragile achievements, with little prospect for survival. The EMZ turned out to be a short-lived experiment, with Angola and Mozambique building up large cumulative deficit positions offset by the sizeable cumulative surpluses of the mainland. A cobweb model using monthly observations for macroeconomic variables of these two territories describes a time divergent process caused by structural imbalances, as well as by the loan granting system. The EMZ was not an optimum currency area and was not sustainable in the long run. This is an historical experiment that is not without interest for the study of other monetary areas. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 392-421 Issue: 3 Volume: 36 Year: 2021 Month: 09 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2021.1890579 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2021.1890579 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:36:y:2021:i:3:p:392-421 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Prince Young Aboagye Author-X-Name-First: Prince Young Author-X-Name-Last: Aboagye Title: Inequality of education in colonial Ghana: European influences and African responses Abstract: How and why did African households under colonial rule make the decision to educate their children or not, and how did this micro-level decision making affect the diffusion of education in colonial Ghana? This paper addresses these questions and shows that many households were reluctant to enrol their children in school because the costs of colonial education were prohibitive, and the benefits were limited. Unemployment of school leavers was a major social problem throughout the colonial era and returns to education did not justify investments in education. The demand for education was relatively high in areas where the demand for skilled labour was high, and from the late 1930s when there were growing pay-offs to colonial education. Overall, the paper points to the need to examine interactions between supply and demand factors in order to understand variations in human capital accumulation in sub-Saharan Africa. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 367-391 Issue: 3 Volume: 36 Year: 2021 Month: 09 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2021.1921571 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2021.1921571 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:36:y:2021:i:3:p:367-391 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Ushehwedu Kufakurinani Author-X-Name-First: Ushehwedu Author-X-Name-Last: Kufakurinani Title: Gender and settler labour markets: The marriage bar in colonial Zimbabwe Abstract: This paper discusses the marriage bar in Southern Rhodesia’s labour market. It extends the analysis of the marriage bar. Over and above restrictions to enter the labour market, white women in colonial Zimbabwe, over time, also faced restrictions in terms of their conditions of service once they had entered the market. Married women, for example, were not permitted into permanent employment and, therefore, did not enjoy the benefits associated with fixed establishment. Married white women also had limited opportunities for promotion. Various justifications were proffered to maintain this status quo. However, by and large, hegemonic patriarchies played an important role in entrenching the domestic ideology that fuelled the marriage bar in its various forms. As the paper demonstrates, the marriage bar did not go unchallenged and, in 1971, married women’s restrictions regarding permanent employment were lifted. Of course, these legalistic undertakings were not always immediately reflected in practice partly because perceptions about married white women as primarily mothers and wives lingered on. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 439-444 Issue: 3 Volume: 36 Year: 2021 Month: 09 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2021.1929611 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2021.1929611 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:36:y:2021:i:3:p:439-444 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Carlos Marichal Author-X-Name-First: Carlos Author-X-Name-Last: Marichal Author-Name: Guillermo Barragán Author-X-Name-First: Guillermo Author-X-Name-Last: Barragán Title: New perspectives and sources of the history of banking in Latin America and Spain, nineteenth to twentieth centuries Abstract: The banking history of Latin America and Spain has emerged as a quite active field for comparative research in economics and history. To show the recent liveliness in the field and the many new sources available, the article begins with two sections that provide an overview of the banking history of many countries, as well as bibliographies and references to essential historical documents. Subsequently we present a new web page, hbancaria.org, which contains a bibliography, data, and information on primary sources, researchers, digital collections, and projects related to the field. One of the main objectives of this type of project is to promote discussion among specialists and share information through formats and technologies currently available. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 451-463 Issue: 3 Volume: 36 Year: 2021 Month: 09 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2021.1917988 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2021.1917988 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:36:y:2021:i:3:p:451-463 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Jane Humphries Author-X-Name-First: Jane Author-X-Name-Last: Humphries Author-Name: Benjamin Schneider Author-X-Name-First: Benjamin Author-X-Name-Last: Schneider Title: Gender equality, growth, and how a technological trap destroyed female work Abstract: Development economists have long studied the relationship between gender equality and economic growth. More recently, economic historians have taken an overdue interest. We sketch the pathways within the development literature that have been hypothesized as linking equality for women to rising incomes, and the reverse channels – from higher incomes to equality. We describe how the European Marriage Pattern literature applies these mechanisms, and we highlight problems with the claimed link between equality and growth. We then explain how a crucial example of technological unemployment for women – the destruction of hand spinning during the British Industrial Revolution – contributed to the emergence of the male breadwinner family. We show how this family structure created household relationships that play into the development pathways, and outline its persistent effects into the twenty-first century. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 428-438 Issue: 3 Volume: 36 Year: 2021 Month: 09 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2021.1929606 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2021.1929606 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:36:y:2021:i:3:p:428-438 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Amy Rommelspacher Author-X-Name-First: Amy Author-X-Name-Last: Rommelspacher Title: Restating the case for women’s history in South Africa Abstract: In the West, women’s history arose amidst the women’s movements of the 1970s. In developing regions such as South Africa, however, the process was delayed and early interest in women was expressed by anthropologists and sociologists. In developing regions, researching, writing, and consuming history is a luxury. This puts more pressure on choosing what to research and write about. This essay focuses on the value of studying women’s history. While the subject is no longer neglected in South Africa, there are areas of women’s history that have been overlooked. Interdisciplinary methods and innovative use of source material could provide the opportunity to study hidden aspects of women’s lives that have been overlooked. These new approaches can challenge past assumptions and shed light on new questions. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 445-450 Issue: 3 Volume: 36 Year: 2021 Month: 09 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2021.1929615 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2021.1929615 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:36:y:2021:i:3:p:445-450 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Tom Westland Author-X-Name-First: Tom Author-X-Name-Last: Westland Title: How accurate are the prices in the British colonial Blue Books? Abstract: Despite the widespread use of the British colonial Blue Books as a statistical source, there has been little investigation of their reliability. This article compares retail price reports in the Blue Books with annual averages constructed from weekly market reports published in four colonial African newspapers. It finds that the Blue Books can sometimes be an unreliable guide to staple prices, with the median error in the order of 25%, though some series are reasonably accurate and some are very inaccurate. Estimating annual averages was complicated by high price volatility and seasonality. In a simulation, the article shows that colonial officials would have usually needed to gather price quotations reasonably frequently in order to be likely to obtain accurate annual averages. A new effort to find non-official sources for prices, especially for staples, and for the early colonial period, would help to refine estimates of living standards and agricultural market dynamics in colonial Africa. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 75-99 Issue: 1 Volume: 37 Year: 2022 Month: 01 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2021.1959314 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2021.1959314 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:37:y:2022:i:1:p:75-99 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Bastian Becker Author-X-Name-First: Bastian Author-X-Name-Last: Becker Title: The colonial struggle over polygamy: Consequences for educational expansion in sub-Saharan Africa Abstract: Christian missions in colonial Africa have contributed significantly to the expansion of formal education and thereby shaped the continent’s long-term economic and political development. This paper breaks new ground by showing that this process depended on local demand for education. It is argued that disagreements over norms, and in particular the struggle over polygamy, which resulted from missions’ insistence on monogamy in traditionally polygamous areas, lowered African demand for education. Analyses of geocoded data from historical and contemporary sources, covering most of sub-Saharan Africa, show that the struggle is associated with worse educational outcomes today. Effects are not limited to formal attainments but carry over to informal outcomes, in particular literacy. The findings attest to considerable heterogeneity in missionary legacies and suggest that local conditions should be given greater consideration in future studies on the long-term consequences of colonial-era interventions. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 27-49 Issue: 1 Volume: 37 Year: 2022 Month: 01 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2021.1940946 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2021.1940946 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:37:y:2022:i:1:p:27-49 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Montserrat López Jerez Author-X-Name-First: Montserrat Author-X-Name-Last: López Jerez Title: Factor endowments, vent for surplus and involutionary process in rural developing economies Abstract: This article seeks to provide a new analytical framework based on factor endowments to understand growth in rural economies without structural transformation. More concretely, it explores the variation in farmers’ ability to respond to new commercial opportunities. To complement the extensive literature on the economic and institutional effects of factor endowments, this paper revisits two influential yet controversial theories: Mark Elvin’s high-level equilibrium trap for areas with high population densities in a closed arable frontier, and Hla Myint’s vent for surplus for areas with surpluses of land and labour. We argue that these become more operational if reinterpreted by Boserupian land intensification processes. By lifting the neo-classical constraints on factor relationships, this paper contributes by exploring the mechanisms by which factor endowments might preclude the transformation. Understanding the different dynamics of cultivation in relation to land and labour use, technological choices, saving capacity, and potential linkages to industrialization becomes of even greater significance as these areas may be found within the same countries at a given time. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 50-74 Issue: 1 Volume: 37 Year: 2022 Month: 01 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2021.1957825 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2021.1957825 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:37:y:2022:i:1:p:50-74 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Bruno Gabriel Witzel de Souza Author-X-Name-First: Bruno Gabriel Author-X-Name-Last: Witzel de Souza Title: Precedents of mass migration: Policies, occupations, and the sorting of foreigners in São Paulo, Brazil (1872) Abstract: This paper studies the distribution of foreigners across counties of the province of São Paulo, Brazil, in 1872. The analysis stresses the historical importance of policies that fostered immigration in the nineteenth century by discussing the two main migratory strategies pursued in Brazil by the 1870s, namely the recruitment of foreign bonded labourers to the plantations and of settlers to rural colonies. The empirical approach studies the sorting of foreigners according to the economic, institutional, demographic, and geographic characteristics of the counties. Results show that the number of foreigners in 1872 was positively correlated with the ease of access to a region and with contemporaneous immigrant networks. The number of foreigners in 1872 also correlated negatively with the free, non-white, population, suggesting a degree of substitutability in local labour markets in a period before mass immigration to the region. Finally, the economic structure of the counties influenced the allocation of foreigners. Agricultural employment was associated with less immigrants, while manufacturing and trade-related activities were linked with a larger number of foreigners. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 1-26 Issue: 1 Volume: 37 Year: 2022 Month: 01 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2021.1911637 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2021.1911637 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:37:y:2022:i:1:p:1-26 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Luis Felipe Zegarra Author-X-Name-First: Luis Felipe Author-X-Name-Last: Zegarra Title: Borrower income and loan rates in the credit market of Lima Abstract: I analyse the effect of borrower income on loan rates in the credit market of Lima in 1840–65. I show that borrower income had a negative effect on interest rates. Borrower income influenced interest rates mostly through the impact on loan sizes: richer borrowers received larger loans and larger loans were associated with lower loan rates. The results are consistent with the influence of economies of scale on lending and differences in risk between large and small borrowers. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 147-169 Issue: 2 Volume: 37 Year: 2022 Month: 05 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2021.1962705 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2021.1962705 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:37:y:2022:i:2:p:147-169 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Toyomu Masaki Author-X-Name-First: Toyomu Author-X-Name-Last: Masaki Title: Indian guinée cloth, West Africa, and the French colonial empire 1826–1925: Colonialism and imperialism as agents of globalization Abstract: This study focuses on the global trade of guinée cloth mainly produced in French India and exported to French West Africa from 1826 to 1925. The article first re-examines the guinée cloth and its role in the western Sahel. Second, it argues that the guinée produced in the French factories established in French India was costly but of poor quality. Consequently, a similar type of cloth made in Europe began replacing the guinée in the Senegalese market in the late nineteenth century. Therefore, the producers of the guinée in the French empire supported protective measures, although merchants and relevant governments did not always share this opinion. Furthermore, the unstable political climate of the early French Third Republic promoted frequent changes in the trade policy on guinée cloth. Consequently, in addition to the traditional route from Saint Louis, Senegal, the article demonstrates that the export of Indian guinée began through more protected routes in northern Africa and was then distributed within the wider region of West Africa. Even the Méline Tariff opened the guinée producers in French India to new markets. Through the guinée cloth trade, this study demonstrates how colonialism and imperialism could lead to globalization. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 101-127 Issue: 2 Volume: 37 Year: 2022 Month: 05 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2021.1985454 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2021.1985454 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:37:y:2022:i:2:p:101-127 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Nikita Lychakov Author-X-Name-First: Nikita Author-X-Name-Last: Lychakov Author-Name: Dmitrii Saprykin Author-X-Name-First: Dmitrii Author-X-Name-Last: Saprykin Author-Name: Nadia Vanteeva Author-X-Name-First: Nadia Author-X-Name-Last: Vanteeva Title: Comparative labour productivity in British and Russian manufacturing, circa 1908 Abstract: Using data from official manufacturing censuses, we compare labour productivity in the UK and the Russian Empire around 1908 in the industries in which medium- and large-size enterprises predominated. We find that Russia’s labour productivity was 75.3 or 57.4% of the British level, depending on whether we include or exclude Russia’s large and highly productive spirits industry. Russia’s productivity was between France’s and the Netherlands’, if we include the spirits industry; and between the Netherlands’ and Italy’s, if we exclude it. We find that the majority of Russian industries underperformed the British ones. However, some of the industries that had been established or modernized during the state-induced industrialization policies of the 1890s, including the metallurgy in the Southern industrial region, iron and steel tubes, railway carriages, and butter and cheese, performed on a par with or close to their British counterparts. The remaining modernized industries, including spirits, tobacco, and petrochemical sectors, outperformed their British equivalents. Our findings suggest that although Russia’s aggregate labour productivity lagged behind the UK’s, Russia’s modernized industries achieved, and in some cases surpassed, the productivity level of their British counterparts. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 170-200 Issue: 2 Volume: 37 Year: 2022 Month: 05 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2021.2009797 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2021.2009797 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:37:y:2022:i:2:p:170-200 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Francisco J. Marco-Gracia Author-X-Name-First: Francisco J. Author-X-Name-Last: Marco-Gracia Author-Name: Johan Fourie Author-X-Name-First: Johan Author-X-Name-Last: Fourie Title: The missing boys: Understanding the unbalanced sex ratio in South Africa, 1894–2011 Abstract: At the beginning of the twentieth century in South Africa, the sex ratio for black children under five years was one of the lowest ever recorded. Sex ratios also differed markedly by racial group. Those for white children remained almost invariable, with more boys than girls, while black children had a clear majority of girls, a situation that the literature has almost completely overlooked. The reasons are still not completely clear. Although sex ratios at birth show more births of boys than girls, boys’ mortality was higher than girls’ mortality. Why boys’ mortality was so high and why, as a consequence, the twentieth-century under-five sex ratio for black children was so skewed towards girls, a ratio much lower, for example, than the sex ratios of pre-industrial European countries, remains unanswered. We suggest several possible explanations. The most likely explanation, we argue, was a preference for girls. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 128-146 Issue: 2 Volume: 37 Year: 2022 Month: 05 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2021.1987212 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2021.1987212 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:37:y:2022:i:2:p:128-146 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 # input file: REHD_A_2025046_J.xml processed with: repec_from_jats12.xsl darts-xml-transformations-20220907T060133 git hash: 85d61bd949 Author-Name: Manuel Llorca-Jaña Author-X-Name-First: Manuel Author-X-Name-Last: Llorca-Jaña Author-Name: Javier Rivas Author-X-Name-First: Javier Author-X-Name-Last: Rivas Author-Name: Ignacio Pérez Author-X-Name-First: Ignacio Author-X-Name-Last: Pérez Author-Name: Juan Navarrete-Montalvo Author-X-Name-First: Juan Author-X-Name-Last: Navarrete-Montalvo Title: Human capital in Chile: The development of numeracy during the last 250 years Abstract: This paper studies the evolution of numeracy in Chile for cohorts born from the 1780s to the 1970s, providing a new series of this important indicator of human capital, essential to promote economic growth. This is the longest series currently available of any human capital indicator for Chile. It shows that numeracy was very low until the early twentieth century but that, contrary to traditional interpretations, it increased gradually from the 1780s (well before the promulgation of the primary instruction law of 1860), until full basic numeracy skills were achieved by the mid-twentieth century. This transition was completed some 3–4 decades after parallel developments occurred in the leading countries of the region and some 120 years behind the most developed areas of Europe. This development was characterized by high gender numeracy inequality until the first decades of the twentieth century, as well as by a pronounced regional inequality. However, there was a quick process of convergence across provinces, completed at the same time as gender inequality was reduced. Our numeracy data is also consistent with alternative human capital indicators such as literacy and schooling, and we provide a set of explanations about why they all improved, and their timing. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 227-256 Issue: 3 Volume: 37 Year: 2022 Month: 09 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2021.2025046 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2021.2025046 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:37:y:2022:i:3:p:227-256 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 # input file: REHD_A_2075723_J.xml processed with: repec_from_jats12.xsl darts-xml-transformations-20220907T060133 git hash: 85d61bd949 Author-Name: María Inés Moraes Author-X-Name-First: María Inés Author-X-Name-Last: Moraes Author-Name: Rebeca Riella Author-X-Name-First: Rebeca Author-X-Name-Last: Riella Author-Name: Carolina Vicario Author-X-Name-First: Carolina Author-X-Name-Last: Vicario Author-Name: Pablo Marmissolle Author-X-Name-First: Pablo Author-X-Name-Last: Marmissolle Title: Wealth inequality in colonial Hispanic-America: Montevideo in the late eighteenth century Abstract: There has recently been renewed interest among economic historians in preindustrial inequality, but there are still few case studies on wealth inequality in preindustrial Latin America, particularly involving colonial Spanish America before 1820. This paper presents a study of wealth inequality in Montevideo, an area of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, in the late colonial period. This work addresses the level of wealth inequality, the composition of wealth, and its relationship with social structure in Montevideo in the late eighteenth century. It uses a data set of probate inventories and population records as its main sources, estimating a Gini index, presenting a stylized picture of the social structure, and analysing the differences in wealth between social groups in 1772–3. The main finding is that wealth inequality in Montevideo was similar to that in the English colonies of North America in 1774 and was lower than that in preindustrial economies in Europe in the same time period. Although most of this society was made up of a relatively wealthy middle class, some important assets were strongly concentrated among the elite. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 288-314 Issue: 3 Volume: 37 Year: 2022 Month: 09 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2022.2075723 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2022.2075723 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:37:y:2022:i:3:p:288-314 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 # input file: REHD_A_2058926_J.xml processed with: repec_from_jats12.xsl darts-xml-transformations-20220907T060133 git hash: 85d61bd949 Author-Name: Atsushi Kobayashi Author-X-Name-First: Atsushi Author-X-Name-Last: Kobayashi Title: Market integration via entrepôt: Southeast Asia's rice trade, 1828–1870 Abstract: While scholars have disclosed the pre-1870 intercontinental market integration between Europe and Asia, the contemporaneous intra-Asian international market has been assumed fragmentary. Contrary to this prevailing view, this study demonstrates that Southeast Asia's international rice market was in a process of integration from the 1830s onwards, with a dynamic shift in market linkages and efficiency via Singapore. Specifically, an estimation of coefficient of variation demonstrates long-run price convergence in Java, Singapore, and Southern China from the 1830s until 1872. Moreover, according to temporal variations of transaction costs and adjustment speed estimated using a Threshold Autoregressive model, direct market integration between Java and China shifted to indirect integration based on Singapore's intermediary function after the mid-1840s; market efficiency steadily improved through speedier information transmission while adapting to changing market linkages. This study suggests that rather than Western-led trade liberalizations, Singapore's entrepôt function significantly contributed to the post-1830s progress of Southeast Asia's rice market integration. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 201-226 Issue: 3 Volume: 37 Year: 2022 Month: 09 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2022.2058926 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2022.2058926 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:37:y:2022:i:3:p:201-226 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 # input file: REHD_A_2103306_J.xml processed with: repec_from_jats12.xsl darts-xml-transformations-20220907T060133 git hash: 85d61bd949 Author-Name: Dozie Okoye Author-X-Name-First: Dozie Author-X-Name-Last: Okoye Title: Historical Christian missions and African societies today: Perspectives from economic history Abstract: Christian missionaries spread across the African continent in the early twentieth century following the expansion of colonial control, and invested in various areas of African societies in order to gain converts. This paper describes the recent literature in economic history that attempts to document and estimate the long-run impacts of Christian missions, including outstanding issues in the literature. The paper summarizes recent studies that attempt to tackle these issues. One conclusion is that more micro data is needed on the evolution of African societies as a result of missionary activities in order to fully document the mechanisms behind the long-run impact of missions. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 315-332 Issue: 3 Volume: 37 Year: 2022 Month: 09 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2022.2103306 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2022.2103306 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:37:y:2022:i:3:p:315-332 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 # input file: REHD_A_2067747_J.xml processed with: repec_from_jats12.xsl darts-xml-transformations-20220907T060133 git hash: 85d61bd949 Author-Name: Ángel Luis González-Esteban Author-X-Name-First: Ángel Luis Author-X-Name-Last: González-Esteban Author-Name: Elisa Botella-Rodríguez Author-X-Name-First: Elisa Author-X-Name-Last: Botella-Rodríguez Title: The agricultural productivity gap: A global vision Abstract: Productivity in agriculture tends to grow slower than in other sectors. This is a stylized fact that has resulted in a persistent productivity gap, generalized over time and across countries. This paper explores the evolution of this gap from an international perspective, identifying patterns in both developed and developing countries. Empirical regularities are discussed in the light of a literature review on the causes of the gap and its socio-economic effects. Reflections on the nature of the productivity gap often merge with considerations on its social implications and on the policies that should be implemented to deal with it. We refer to this wider political economy issue as the ‘farm problem’, and argue that it has not been given a satisfactory solution, neither in rich nor in developing countries. Although in some industrialized countries the discharging of the countryside has acted as a major source of convergence, there has not been a general reduction in the productivity gap between agriculture and the rest of the economy worldwide, nor are there compelling reasons to assume that this will happen in the future. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 257-287 Issue: 3 Volume: 37 Year: 2022 Month: 09 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2022.2067747 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2022.2067747 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:37:y:2022:i:3:p:257-287 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 # input file: REHD_A_2106211_J.xml processed with: repec_from_jats12.xsl darts-xml-transformations-20220907T060133 git hash: 85d61bd949 Author-Name: Patricia Funjika Author-X-Name-First: Patricia Author-X-Name-Last: Funjika Title: Historical African ethnic class stratification systems and intergenerational transmission of education Abstract: This paper examines the role of precolonial class inequality systems in the intergenerational transmission of education processes amongst ethnic groups in Africa. Using ethnographic and household survey data from six African countries and grouping ethnic groups by the historical class system that existed within them, I observe variations in intergenerational persistence between them with varying levels of significance in the different countries included. The findings suggest that understanding intergenerational mobility within African countries should take into account the different historical ethnic group characteristics, although the mobility process does not evolve uniformly across countries. Country-specific colonial administrative systems and the immediate post-independence education policies are critical factors that also need to be taken into account to understand the changes in education-based intergenerational persistence from the precolonial to the contemporary period. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 89-116 Issue: 1 Volume: 38 Year: 2023 Month: 01 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2022.2106211 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2022.2106211 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:38:y:2023:i:1:p:89-116 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 # input file: REHD_A_2057294_J.xml processed with: repec_from_jats12.xsl darts-xml-transformations-20220907T060133 git hash: 85d61bd949 Author-Name: Jacob Ferrell Author-X-Name-First: Jacob Author-X-Name-Last: Ferrell Author-Name: Joel Wainwright Author-X-Name-First: Joel Author-X-Name-Last: Wainwright Title: The political economy of development in Belize under the People’s United Party Abstract: The former British colony of Belize faces serious economic problems today, reflecting a collapse in tourism following COVID-19. To account for this fragility, a return to economic history is needed. We focus on two critical periods. First, we examine why the Belizean state was unable to form a developmental state in the period of the anticolonial movement and self-government (the 1950s–1960s). Particular attention is given to George Price, leader of the anti-colonial People’s United Party (PUP) and ‘father of the country’. Second, turning to the post-colonial period, we examine one experimental chapter that lasted roughly a decade (1998–2007) when a coherent state-led economic strategy was pursued. During both periods the PUP-led state sought to reorganize development strategy along progressive lines, but failed to deliver. Because capital was almost completely foreign dominated, the fledgling Belizean developmental state could not discipline capital toward developmental alignment. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 65-88 Issue: 1 Volume: 38 Year: 2023 Month: 01 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2022.2057294 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2022.2057294 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:38:y:2023:i:1:p:65-88 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 # input file: REHD_A_2024073_J.xml processed with: repec_from_jats12.xsl darts-xml-transformations-20220907T060133 git hash: 85d61bd949 Author-Name: Stefania Galli Author-X-Name-First: Stefania Author-X-Name-Last: Galli Author-Name: Dimitrios Theodoridis Author-X-Name-First: Dimitrios Author-X-Name-Last: Theodoridis Author-Name: Klas Rönnbäck Author-X-Name-First: Klas Author-X-Name-Last: Rönnbäck Title: Economic inequality in Latin America and Africa, 1650 to 1950: Can a comparison of historical trajectories help to understand underdevelopment? Abstract: The present article provides a comparative review of historical economic inequality in the two most unequal regions of the world, namely Latin America and Africa. This contribution examines novel studies that provide quantitative estimates of income and/or wealth inequality in the two continents in terms of sources, methods, results and interpretations, focusing on the period 1650 to 1950. The article shows that although scholars in the two regions have often employed similar methodologies, their results are far from conforming to a uniform pattern. The present review highlights how scholars of Latin America and Africa tend to remain geographically isolated, failing to capture the learning opportunities stemming from the work of their continental counterparts in terms of both sources and methods. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 41-64 Issue: 1 Volume: 38 Year: 2023 Month: 01 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2021.2024073 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2021.2024073 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:38:y:2023:i:1:p:41-64 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 # input file: REHD_A_2082407_J.xml processed with: repec_from_jats12.xsl darts-xml-transformations-20220907T060133 git hash: 85d61bd949 Author-Name: Marcin Wroński Author-X-Name-First: Marcin Author-X-Name-Last: Wroński Title: Wealth inequality in interwar Poland Abstract: In 1923 Poland introduced an extraordinary wealth tax. I have used internal statistics of the Ministry of the Treasury to estimate wealth inequality in interwar Poland. This data source was not previously used by researchers. There are no estimates of wealth inequality in interwar Poland available in the literature. According to my estimates, the top 0.01% of wealth owners controlled 14.8% of total private wealth. The wealth share of the top 1% stood at 37.5%. The top decile owned 60.7% of total private wealth. Wealth inequality varied strongly by region. A comparison of wealth inequality in Poland with wealth inequality in other European countries in the interwar period yields a diverse picture. The wealth share of the top 0.01% was the highest in Europe, the wealth share of the top 1% was in the middle of the European ranking, and the wealth share of the top 10% was almost the lowest in Europe. The small elite of super-rich (0.01%) controlled a higher share of national wealth than their European peers, but the wealth share of the rest of the top decile was relatively low. The unequal development of former partitions may partially explain the very high top wealth shares. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 1-40 Issue: 1 Volume: 38 Year: 2023 Month: 01 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2022.2082407 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2022.2082407 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:38:y:2023:i:1:p:1-40 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 # input file: REHD_A_2150162_J.xml processed with: repec_from_jats12.xsl darts-xml-transformations-20230119T200553 git hash: 724830af20 Author-Name: Dácil Juif Author-X-Name-First: Dácil Author-X-Name-Last: Juif Author-Name: Sergio Garrido Author-X-Name-First: Sergio Author-X-Name-Last: Garrido Title: Living standards of copper mine labour in Chile and the Central African Copperbelt compared, 1920s to 1960s Abstract: Large-scale copper mining has been the main industry in Chile and the countries conforming the Central African Copperbelt for about one century. While a relatively extensive social science literature exists on the mostly adverse macroeconomic and institutional effects of a high reliance on mineral exports and revenues, we address the effects on the labour force employed by this industry. We perform a novel inter-continental – as well as dynamic-historical – comparative assessment of the living standards of the domestic copper mineworkers in the three countries from ca1920 to ca1960. There are important similarities and disparities in levels and trends of real wages and other welfare provisions. In explaining the gap across continents, we discuss labour shortage and labour provision, productivity, and mobilization. We also highlight the underlying role of colonialism in determining the inter-continental differences. Copper miners are further found to have been better paid than other workers in all three countries. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 117-150 Issue: 2 Volume: 38 Year: 2023 Month: 05 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2022.2150162 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2022.2150162 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:38:y:2023:i:2:p:117-150 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 # input file: REHD_A_2176842_J.xml processed with: repec_from_jats12.xsl darts-xml-transformations-20230119T200553 git hash: 724830af20 Author-Name: Cecilia Lara Author-X-Name-First: Cecilia Author-X-Name-Last: Lara Title: Manufacturing convergence in the Southern Cone: New evidence for the industrialization period Abstract: The objective of this paper is, on the basis of new evidence, to contribute to the analysis of the performance of the manufacturing industries in Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay during the state-led industrialization period and in comparison with a developed country. Specifically, this paper estimates the productivity gap between Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay relative to the United States in order to reveal whether convergence took place at the industry level. The results identify changes within the industrial sector in the three Latin American countries. In short, manufacturing in Brazil achieved substantial changes, which were reflected in favourable structural change and manufacturing convergence. Moreover, manufacturing convergence accelerated in Brazil in the 1960s, when the development model based on industrialization deepened. Structural transformation was weak in Uruguay and mild in Chile, and the ability to reduce technological gaps was limited to industries based on natural resources with medium and high levels of industrial protection. The latter must also be linked to the different pace of industrialization in these two countries, especially in Uruguay, where the industrializing impulse was exhausted very early on. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 173-197 Issue: 2 Volume: 38 Year: 2023 Month: 05 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2023.2176842 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2023.2176842 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:38:y:2023:i:2:p:173-197 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 # input file: REHD_A_2099371_J.xml processed with: repec_from_jats12.xsl darts-xml-transformations-20230119T200553 git hash: 724830af20 Author-Name: Tirthankar Roy Author-X-Name-First: Tirthankar Author-X-Name-Last: Roy Title: The development of the arid tropics: Lessons for economic history Abstract: For centuries, the world’s tropical regions have been poorer than the temperate-zone countries. Does tropicality make the struggle for economic development harder? What do people caught up in the struggle do? The paper defines ‘tropicality’ as the combination of aridity and seasonal rainfall, and in turn, high inter- and intra-year variability in moisture influx. In the past, this condition would generate a variety of adaptive strategies such as migration and transhumance. In the twentieth century, the response pattern changed from adapting to moisture supply towards control of moisture supply. This process unleashed conflict and environmental stress in the vulnerable geography of the semi-arid tropics. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 151-172 Issue: 2 Volume: 38 Year: 2023 Month: 05 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2022.2099371 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2022.2099371 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:38:y:2023:i:2:p:151-172 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 # input file: REHD_A_2179458_J.xml processed with: repec_from_jats12.xsl darts-xml-transformations-20230119T200553 git hash: 724830af20 Author-Name: Damian Bębnowski Author-X-Name-First: Damian Author-X-Name-Last: Bębnowski Title: On Polish economic historiography in exile, 1945–1989 Abstract: This paper studies the main directions of development of Polish economic historiography in the country and in exile (in Great Britain and the United States) between 1945 and 1989. The analysis focuses on Polish economic history under various conditions (especially political ones) and the characteristics of selected research in exile (by Stanisław Swianiewicz, Władysław Wielhorski, Paweł Zaremba, Piotr Wojtowicz, Alfred Zauberman, Stanisław Kościałkowski, and Feliks Gross). The current literature focuses on the achievements of researchers in the country, while exile economic historiography is still marginalized. I analyse representative works of Polish researchers, comparing their issues and the methods used. It turns out that home economic historiography flourished, even under ideological constraints. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 198-214 Issue: 2 Volume: 38 Year: 2023 Month: 05 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2023.2179458 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2023.2179458 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:38:y:2023:i:2:p:198-214 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 # input file: REHD_A_2243035_J.xml processed with: repec_from_jats12.xsl darts-xml-transformations-20230119T200553 git hash: 724830af20 Author-Name: Bruno Gabriel Witzel de Souza Author-X-Name-First: Bruno Gabriel Author-X-Name-Last: Witzel de Souza Title: Like the swing of the pendulum: The history of government-sponsored rural settlements in São Paulo, Brazil (1820s–1920s) Abstract: This paper studies the history of government-sponsored rural settlements in the province/state of São Paulo, Brazil, as a pendular movement, whose points of reversion depended on the interests of a landowning elite to obtain labour for newly expanding plantations from the 1820s to the 1920s. Faltering infrastructure and ill-defined property rights over public lands were persistent constraints to the development of such rural settlements. Part of this failure can be attributed to a lack of State capacity and part to the opposition of plantation owners to the settling of independent smallholdings. The paper complements this historical-institutional analysis with a quantitative description of such settlements in 1898–1920. These late government-sponsored rural settlements showed the potential to grow in demographic and economic terms and had an overall demographic and occupational composition well aligned with the goal of creating a family-based peasantry. However, there were enormous heterogeneities in ethno-linguistic composition, educational attainment, and economic prosperity between and within such rural settlements, which point to idiosyncratic features that should be taken into account in future research assessing the short- and long-run effects of immigration and settlement policies in Brazil. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 305-334 Issue: 3 Volume: 38 Year: 2023 Month: 09 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2023.2243035 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2023.2243035 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:38:y:2023:i:3:p:305-334 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 # input file: REHD_A_2209285_J.xml processed with: repec_from_jats12.xsl darts-xml-transformations-20230119T200553 git hash: 724830af20 Author-Name: Shimaa Hatab Author-X-Name-First: Shimaa Author-X-Name-Last: Hatab Title: Political economy of development in the Arab republics: The state and socio-economic coalitions Abstract: The question of socio-economic underdevelopment in the Arab region has been a perennial theme in development studies. While some scholars highlight the long durée effect of the Ottoman institutional legacy, others place the blame on the legacy of exploitation and expropriation of the colonial practices in the region. The article reaches beyond the two accounts (albeit departing from the colonial economic basis) and brings out the agency of the post-colonial elites who altered the socio-economic foundation of the political class and transformed processes of capital accumulation and labour commodification. I argue that the processes of state-building accompanied by social engineering measures represented a ‘critical juncture’ that impinged on state autonomy and its bureaucratic capacity and left an indelible imprint on development strategies. The article unpacks three mechanisms that proved consequential for economic policy outcomes: (1) the degree of elite autonomy to formulate policies, (2) the power of social classes to contest economic policies, and (3) the capacity of state bureaucracy to implement policies and allocate resources. A critical political economy perspective, that reaches beyond the reification of the state and examines the interaction between ‘elite deals’ and ‘social bargains’, offers a nuanced account for varied development records across the region. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 281-304 Issue: 3 Volume: 38 Year: 2023 Month: 09 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2023.2209285 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2023.2209285 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:38:y:2023:i:3:p:281-304 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 # input file: REHD_A_2213400_J.xml processed with: repec_from_jats12.xsl darts-xml-transformations-20230119T200553 git hash: 724830af20 Author-Name: Herbert S. Klein Author-X-Name-First: Herbert S. Author-X-Name-Last: Klein Author-Name: Francisco Vidal Luna Author-X-Name-First: Francisco Vidal Author-X-Name-Last: Luna Title: The emergence of Brazil as a major world sugar and ethanol producer Abstract: The production and export of sugar defined the colonial history of Brazil. It was here that the first modern slave based plantation system was created in America. Up through the end of the 17th century it was the dominant Atlantic producer of sugar. Although production continued to grow it was replaced in world markets in the 18th century by West Indian growers and was late to modernize in the 19th and early 20th century. Yet today it is once again the world's dominant producer of sugar and the second largest producer of ethanol. How and why these changes occurred is the theme of this essay in which we explore the rise of the modern sugar and ethanol industries in Brazil. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 256-280 Issue: 3 Volume: 38 Year: 2023 Month: 09 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2023.2213400 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2023.2213400 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:38:y:2023:i:3:p:256-280 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 # input file: REHD_A_2209284_J.xml processed with: repec_from_jats12.xsl darts-xml-transformations-20230119T200553 git hash: 724830af20 Author-Name: Arlinde C.E. Vrooman Author-X-Name-First: Arlinde C.E. Author-X-Name-Last: Vrooman Title: The development of colonial health care provision in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire: ca. 1900–55 Abstract: Colonial administrations introduced various social infrastructures in Africa. This paper analyses and compares the development of colonial governments' health care provision and policies in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire from circa 1900 to 1955. Using qualitative and quantitative information from colonial reports, a new dataset captures the development of four factors relevant to these aims: health care expenditures, health care facilities, medical staff, and patients. Deflated health care expenditures per capita were found to be higher in Ghana than in Côte d’Ivoire in almost all years. The number of health care facilities per capita was larger in Côte d’Ivoire than in Ghana, and facilities were more geographically dispersed. Ghana had a lower number of medical staff per capita than Côte d’Ivoire as of the 1920s. Medical staff from Côte d’Ivoire formed the majority of the staff base as early as the mid-1910s. Finally, the analysis shows that the number of patients treated in health care facilities in Ghana was low until the 1920s, and took off as more facilities became available during the 1940s. These findings provide evidence that even two countries that are relatively similar (apart from their colonial history) can have different colonial health care trajectories. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 215-255 Issue: 3 Volume: 38 Year: 2023 Month: 09 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2023.2209284 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2023.2209284 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:38:y:2023:i:3:p:215-255 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 # input file: REHD_A_2188438_J.xml processed with: repec_from_jats12.xsl darts-xml-transformations-20230119T200553 git hash: 724830af20 Author-Name: Javier E. Rodríguez Weber Author-X-Name-First: Javier E. Author-X-Name-Last: Rodríguez Weber Title: Top incomes and the ruling class in Latin American history. Some theoretical and methodological challenges Abstract: Recent studies on income inequality have some characteristics that differentiate them from their earlier counterparts. The spotlight on high incomes has illuminated a new angle from which to view income inequality. Because estimates of top income shares can be used as a proxy for power inequality, they can enrich our comprehension of the role of the elite in Latin America’s economic development. However, scholars interested in studying the history of economic inequality in Latin America face certain methodological and theoretical problems of their own: (1) because food and other commodities such as minerals represent the lion’s share of exported goods in Latin America, cycles in commodity prices have shaped the region’s economic history. Thus, the crux of income inequality in Latin America is who becomes richer and who becomes poorer when exports prices rise and fall; and (2) the sort of fiscal statistics typically used capture only a few countries and sometimes only limited periods. Thus, as I argue, scholars should use dynamic social tables to produce new information. I exemplify both points with a historical analysis of three Latin American countries: Chile, Colombia, and Argentina. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 335-352 Issue: 3 Volume: 38 Year: 2023 Month: 09 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2023.2188438 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2023.2188438 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:38:y:2023:i:3:p:335-352 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 # input file: REHD_A_2220076_J.xml processed with: repec_from_jats12.xsl darts-xml-transformations-20231214T103247 git hash: d7a2cb0857 Author-Name: Daniel Castillo Hidalgo Author-X-Name-First: Daniel Author-X-Name-Last: Castillo Hidalgo Title: The colonial gap: An analysis of income distribution in the Port of Dakar, 1911–1940 Abstract: This study presents new empirical evidence on the structure of income of African workers in the Port of Dakar between 1911 and 1940. It provides a systematic series of public wages earned by the African and European workforce in a colonial seaport. This series includes income structure by skill tier of public employees and labourers employed at the port. Did wage structure evolve according to relative increases in human capital accumulation in this major colonial seaport? In this investigation, I use data collected from the annual budgets of the port to seek explanations for the structural differences in income in three consecutive decades between 1911 and 1940. I found that the skill premium between highly skilled and unskilled African workers was 3.8 on average during the period analysed. Moreover, the skill premium between mid-skilled and unskilled workers is estimated to be 2.7. Furthermore, top and senior European staff (less than 10% of the staff) accounted for 36% of the overall income. I provide quantitative evidence on how colonial allowances were the key element that contributed to the increasing income gap between European and African workers in similar job categories. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 1-27 Issue: 1 Volume: 39 Year: 2024 Month: 01 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2023.2220076 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2023.2220076 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:39:y:2024:i:1:p:1-27 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 # input file: REHD_A_2220075_J.xml processed with: repec_from_jats12.xsl darts-xml-transformations-20231214T103247 git hash: d7a2cb0857 Author-Name: Andrew Schein Author-X-Name-First: Andrew Author-X-Name-Last: Schein Title: The economic response of the Israeli government to a rapid influx of immigrants by the founding of the state, 1948–1953: Expansionary fiscal policy and rationing Abstract: Israel was founded in 1948, and immediately afterwards, numerous immigrants came to the country. The Israeli government decided to provide provisions to these immigrants, along with trying to develop the country and investing in the military. This fiscal expansion was funded by seigniorage, and the government attempted to restrain inflation by imposing price controls and rationing food and other consumer goods. This policy failed to stop inflation, and there were persistent shortages of many goods in the country, except for bread which was not rationed. There were even shortages of eggs, which were all produced domestically and whose output increased on a per capita basis by more than 250% in comparison to the number of eggs produced prior to the founding of the state. This indicates that the shortages in the stores were due to the rationing. The shortages led to a flourishing black market, and a reduction in consumer welfare. The rationing made a difficult situation worse and the government began to end the rationing in 1952. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 28-48 Issue: 1 Volume: 39 Year: 2024 Month: 01 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2023.2220075 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2023.2220075 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:39:y:2024:i:1:p:28-48 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 # input file: REHD_A_2243036_J.xml processed with: repec_from_jats12.xsl darts-xml-transformations-20231214T103247 git hash: d7a2cb0857 Author-Name: Michael Chanda Chiseni Author-X-Name-First: Michael Chanda Author-X-Name-Last: Chiseni Title: The sins of the church: The long-term impacts of Christian missionary praxis on HIV and sexual behaviour in Zambia Abstract: This study examines the long-term effect of Christian missionary exposure on HIV infection and related sexual behaviour in Zambia. I use distance to a historical missionary church and health facility as proxies for missionary exposure. I constructed a geocoded data set combining information on the historical locations of churches and missionary health centres with contemporary individual-level data. I find that individuals who live close to a historical missionary church have a higher likelihood of being infected with HIV. I find no significant effect of proximity to a missionary health centre on HIV. Considering that heterosexual transmission is the main channel of HIV transmission in Zambia, I analyse the effect of missionary exposure on sexual behaviour. The following patterns emerge: individuals who live close to a Protestant church are less likely to engage in premarital sexual abstinence; they also have their first sexual encounter at an earlier age, with the effect being stronger for men than women. Living near a Catholic church is associated with having a higher number of sexual partners. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 49-81 Issue: 1 Volume: 39 Year: 2024 Month: 01 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2023.2243036 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2023.2243036 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:39:y:2024:i:1:p:49-81 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 # input file: REHD_A_2243034_J.xml processed with: repec_from_jats12.xsl darts-xml-transformations-20231214T103247 git hash: d7a2cb0857 Author-Name: Pedro Vaz Goulart Author-X-Name-First: Pedro Vaz Author-X-Name-Last: Goulart Title: Child labour, Africa’s colonial system, and coercion: The case of the Portuguese colonies, 1870–1975 Abstract: Labour studies in the African colonial period are facing a revival, but literature on the role and working conditions of children remains over-generalized. At the same time, child labour has played a central role in economic activities in Africa, and it still does. This article contributes to filling this gap by studying Portuguese colonial Africa as a narrative of tension between labour market forces, public policy, and (limited) agency of children. Labour scarcity facing demand hikes contributed to the increased use of children for labour in the colonial period. We contribute to the history of African labour by compiling data on the – until now – largely neglected use of child labour in mining and agriculture in the Portuguese African colonies. We find children were used to support adults or, with less agency, simply replaced (often forced) adult labour in plantations, mining, and other activities abandoned by adults. (Promised) wage differentials, taxes, forced labour, pass systems, and forced cultivation schemes acted as (dis)incentives to labour migration. Intra and inter-country movement of large numbers of adult labourers stimulated the demand for child labour. Journal: Economic History of Developing Regions Pages: 82-104 Issue: 1 Volume: 39 Year: 2024 Month: 01 X-DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2023.2243034 File-URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2023.2243034 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:39:y:2024:i:1:p:82-104