Sherif Khalifa Sherif Khalifa () History 1 / 62
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Putterman, Louis. Agriculture, Diffusion and Development: Ripple Effects of the Neolithic Revolution. Economica, 75: 729-748, 2008. Sherif Khalifa () History 6 / 62
The transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture, referred to as the Neolithic Revolution, was one of the great turning points in human history. Differences with respect to the timing of the transition to agriculture led to differences in levels of technological development and social organization. Development of states is also stimulated by agriculture and the accompanying sedentarism and population growth. Study the effects of the Neolithic revolution on incomes across the world today, using estimates of the year of transition to agriculture in a large number of countries. Sherif Khalifa () History 7 / 62
Sherif Khalifa () History 8 / 62
An earlier transition to agriculture is associated with higher income or faster growth today not because growing grain for thousands of years has imparted special powers to the land. but because it is associated with a lengthy development of human capabilities that are associated with the growth of civilizations. This includes the development of writing, metallurgy, specialization and trade, the use of money and accounting, the operation of large-scale organizations and the management of states. Then the fact that an agricultural society existed on one piece of territory but not on another thousands of years ago may be an imperfect predictor of the human capabilities present today resulting from the migrations of population and dissemination of ideas and practices over time. Sherif Khalifa () History 9 / 62
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Use differences in preconditions for agriculture and its diffusion to explain why Europeans colonized the world, beginning the fifteenth century. Early development of agriculture, resulting population density and specialization, and the diffusion of technologies and ideas, would have translated into greater sophistication of technology and organization. Leading to the navigational skill, steel weapons, gunpowder and strategic insight that, coupled with horses and Eurasian germs, allowed Europeans to conquer the Americas and other parts of the world. Sherif Khalifa () History 14 / 62
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Historians and archaeologists have long recognized a connection between the rise of agriculture and the rise of states. Such polities probably did not exist anywhere in the world before the intensive cultivation of grains. Kingdoms and empires appear after the achievement of substantial population density over an area of some size. This tends to occur years after the establishment of settled agricultural villages. statehist1500 indexes the extent of indigenous state control over a present-day country s territory between 1 and 1500 CE. Sherif Khalifa () History 18 / 62
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Comin, Diego, William Easterly, and Erick Gong. Was the Wealth of Nations Determined in 1000 BC? American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, 2: 65-97, 2010. Sherif Khalifa () History 21 / 62
Assemble a dataset on technology adoption in 1000 BC, 0 AD, and 1500 AD for the predecessors to today s nation states. The technologies examined change between the ancient period (1000 BC and 0AD) to the early modern period (1500 AD) to reflect the evolution of the technology frontier. The technologies in the datasets are state-of-the-art technologies, at the time, in productive activities. The number of technologies covered (12 for 1000 BC and 0 AD and 24 for 1500 AD) has some information content about the technological sophistication of economies in the distant past. Sherif Khalifa () History 22 / 62
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Current technology captures the average gap in the intensity of adoption of ten major current technologies with respect to the United States. These technologies are electricity, internet, PCs, cell phones, telephones, cargo and passenger aviation, trucks, cars, and tractors. Sherif Khalifa () History 26 / 62
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Bertocchi, Graziella, and Fabio Canova. Did Colonization Matter for Growth? An Empirical Exploration into the Historical Causes of Africa s Underdevelopment. European Economic Review, 46: 1851-1871, 2002. Sherif Khalifa () History 32 / 62
Colonization in 1800 Sherif Khalifa () History 33 / 62
Colonization in 1914 Sherif Khalifa () History 34 / 62
Colonization in 1945 Sherif Khalifa () History 35 / 62
Investigate the impact of European colonization on economic growth in the colonies. Colonial heritage, measured by the identity of the metropolitan ruler and by the degree of economic penetration, matters for the heterogeneity of growth. Colonial indicators are correlated with economic variables that explain growth, and there are growth gains from decolonization. Colonization is the reason for the low average growth rates in Africa, and for the observed heterogeneities within the continent. Sherif Khalifa () History 36 / 62
Colonization Hinders Growth Most of the colonial surplus was extracted by the colonists, and by reducing the indigenous capital accumulation had a negative effect on the colonies growth prospects. Direct exploitation included taxes, tariffs, restriction on trade and foreign investment, forced labor, and enslavement of the indigenous population, which hampered the colonies growth potential. Distorting educational policies created disincentives to human capital accumulation, and thus hindering growth. Colonial domination may be responsible for generating societies with dysfunctional institutions, rent-seeking elites and ethnic conflict Sherif Khalifa () History 37 / 62
Colonization Enhances Growth Colonial rule was legitimized by the fact that it promoted the integration of the colonies into the world economic system. Colonial rule channelled foreign capital and fostered a modernization process in the colonies. Sherif Khalifa () History 38 / 62
An indicator of political status (Polstat). In Polstat, independent countries are given the value of zero, dependencies the value of one, and colonies the value of two. An indicator of the metropolitan power governing each colony (Metrul). In Metrul, we assign a zero to colonies of the UK, a one to colonies of France and a two to colonies of other countries. (Drain) by taking the GNP/GDP ratio in 1960. The discrepancy between GNP and GDP reflects repatriated profits on foreign investment, royalties and direct exploitation activities. Aims at measuring the degree of penetration that the metropolis exerted. A value close to 1 indicates lower penetration and a less intense drain. Use as an indicator of colonial heritage the index of political institutions (Instit) which captures the risk of expropriation faced by individuals in the countries. Sherif Khalifa () History 39 / 62
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Nunn, Nathan. "The Long Term Effects of Africa s Slave Trade." The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 139-176, 2008. Sherif Khalifa () History 43 / 62
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Use data from shipping records and historical documents reporting slave ethnicities to construct estimates of the number of slaves exported from each country during Africa s slave trades. Estimate the relationship between the number of slaves exported from a country and current economic performance. Expect that the slave trades may have been at least as important as offi cial colonial rule for Africa s development. From 1400 to 1900, the African continent experienced four slave trades: the trans-atlantic, the trans-saharan, the Red Sea, and the Indian Ocean slave trades. By comparison, offi cial colonial rule lasted from the 1885 to about 1960. Sherif Khalifa () History 46 / 62
Labor During the trans-atlantic slave trade alone, approximately 12 million slaves were exported from Africa. Another 6 million were exported in the other three slave trades. These figures do not include those who were killed during the raids or those who died on their journey to the coast. By 1850, Africa s population was only half of what it would have been had the slave trades not taken place. Sherif Khalifa () History 47 / 62
Fractionalization The most common manner in which slaves were taken was through villages or states raiding one another. Ties between villages were weakened, which in turn impeded the formation of larger communities and broader ethnic identities. The slave trades may be an important factor explaining Africa s high level of ethnic fractionalization today. Sherif Khalifa () History 48 / 62
Fractionalization Sherif Khalifa () History 49 / 62
Insecurity Because of the environment of uncertainty and insecurity at the time, individuals required weapons, such as iron knives, spears, swords or firearms, to defend themselves. These weapons could be obtained from Europeans in exchange for slaves. This further perpetuated the slave trade and the insecurity that it caused, which in turn further increased the need to enslave others to protect oneself. Sherif Khalifa () History 50 / 62
Instability The consequence of internal conflict was increased political instability and in many cases the collapse of preexisting forms of government. The slave trades also contributed to political instability by causing the corruption of previously established legal structures. Because Africa s slave trades were an important factor affecting political underdevelopment, they may be a central reason behind Africa s weak states today. Sherif Khalifa () History 51 / 62
Instability Sherif Khalifa () History 52 / 62
Use the total number of slaves from each port or region in Africa. Merchants were required to register their ships and declare the volume and value of goods transported for each ship and voyage. The ethnic identity of slaves comes from records of sales, slave registers, court records, church records, and notarial documents. Because slaves were legally identified as property, those engaged in buying and selling had an incentive to identify the birthplace of slaves. Sherif Khalifa () History 53 / 62
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It remains unclear whether the slave trades have a causal impact on current income. An alternative explanation for the relationship is that societies that were initially underdeveloped selected into the slave trades. And these societies continue to be underdeveloped today. Thus, we observe a negative relationship between slave exports and current income. Sherif Khalifa () History 56 / 62
Sherif Khalifa () History 57 / 62
Societies that were the most violent and hostile, and therefore the least developed, were often best able to resist European efforts to purchase slaves. Because the more prosperous areas were also the most densely populated, large numbers of slaves could be effi ciently obtained. Use instruments that are correlated with slave exports, but are uncorrelated with other country characteristics. Use, as an instruments, the distances from each African country to the locations where slaves were demanded. Sherif Khalifa () History 58 / 62
The sailing distance from the point on the coast that is closest to the country s centroid to the closest major market of the Atlantic slave trade. The sailing distance from the point on the coast that is closest to the country s centroid to the closest of the two major slave destinations of the Indian Ocean slave trade. The overland distance from a country s centroid to the closest port of export for the trans-saharan slave trade. The overland distance from a country s centroid to the closest port of export for the Red Sea slave trade. Sherif Khalifa () History 59 / 62
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