Persistence in Economic History

The slave trade, which ended two centuries ago, has had a lasting impact on the economic history of the world. The present costs/benefits of the slave trade can be examined on three fronts: (1) the contribution to the current level of development of the rich parts of the world (2) the contribution to the current under-development of African countries, (3) the costs and benefits to descendants of slaves living today. In a forthcoming paper in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, economist Nathan Nunn tackles the second issue and concludes that “slave trades have had an adverse effect on economic development [in Africa]“. “Is this a surprising answer?”, asks a commentator over at Dani Rodrik’s blog. It is not, but then again Economics is not always about counter-intuitive results. It is also about confirming the obvious, with the help of robust data. Here are excerpts from Nunn’s paper: