Working Paper: NBER ID: w13367
Authors: Nathan Nunn
Abstract: Can part of Africa's current underdevelopment be explained by its slave trades? To explore this question, I use data from shipping records and historical documents reporting slave ethnicities to construct estimates of the number of slaves exported from each country during Africa's slave trades. I find a robust negative relationship between the number of slaves exported from a country and current economic performance. To better understand if the relationship is causal, I examine the historical evidence on selection into the slave trades, and use instrumental variables. Together the evidence suggests that the slave trades have had an adverse effect on economic development.
Keywords: Africa; Slave Trades; Economic Development; Historical Analysis; Instrumental Variables
JEL Codes: F15; N01
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Procurement of slaves through internal conflict (Q34) | Weakened state structures (O17) |
| Weakened state structures (O17) | Increased ethnic fractionalization (J15) |
| Increased ethnic fractionalization (J15) | Hindered economic growth (F69) |
| Number of slaves exported (F10) | Current economic performance (E66) |
| Increased extraction during slave trades (J47) | Worse subsequent economic performance (N12) |
| More developed areas selected into slave trades (N97) | Negative relationship between slave exports and economic outcomes (F69) |