Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP17112
Authors: Pim de Zwart; Daniel Gallardo Albarrán; Auke Rijpma
Abstract: We investigate the demographic effects of forced labor under an extractive colonial regime: the Cultivation System in nineteenth-century Java. Our panel analyses show that labor demands are strongly associated with mortality rates, likely resulting from malnourishment and unhygienic conditions on plantations and the spread of infectious diseases. An instrumental variable approach, using international market prices for coffee and sugar for predicting labor demands, addresses potential endogeneity concerns. Our estimates suggest that without the abolition of the Cultivation System average overall mortality in Java would have been between 10 and 30 percent higher by the late 1870s.
Keywords: colonialism; forced labor; demography; infectious disease; mortality
JEL Codes: N35; N55; J11; J47
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Forced labor (J47) | Mortality rates (I12) |
| Labor demands (J89) | Mortality rates (I12) |
| Malnourishment and poor sanitary conditions (I32) | Mortality rates (I12) |
| Forced labor (J47) | Malnourishment and poor sanitary conditions (I32) |
| Abolition of cultivation system (P32) | Mortality rates (I12) |
| Forced labor (J47) | Total deaths (J17) |