Table 3 - uploaded by Stanley L. Engerman
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The explanations offered for the contrasting records of long-run growth and development among the societies of North and South America most often focus on institutions. The traditional explanations for the sources of these differences in institutions, typically highlight the significance of national heritage or religion. We, in contrast, argue that...
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... 1825 and 1850, nearly every state in the American west or north that had not already done so enacted a law strongly encouraging localities to establish "free schools" open to all children and supported by general taxes. Although the movement made slower progress in the south, which had greater inequality and population heterogeneity than the north, schooling had spread sufficiently by the middle of the nineteenth century that over 40 percent of the school-age population was enrolled, and more than 90 percent of white adults were literate, as shown in Table 3. Schools were also widespread in early nineteenth-century Canada, and even though it lagged the United States by several decades in establishing tax- supported schools with universal access, its literacy rates were nearly as high (Cubberley, 1920). ...
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Citations
... Studies have shown that less-diversified economies are more vulnerable to external shocks. Additionally, several studies have shown that structural changes impact political interests and outcomes (Cimoli and Rovira 2008;Sokoloff and Engerman 2000). ...
This study analyzes the conditional effects of natural resource dependence on export diversification and economic growth. Unlike most previous studies, which only considers the effect of diversification on a single factor, this study combines the interactive effect between natural resources and export diversification in one model. To achieve, we estimate an Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model for WAEMU countries, in which the average level of dependency on natural resources was 7.89% from 1996 to 2018. Our results reveal that natural resources negatively affect economic growth. Considering the interaction between natural resources and export diversification, the findings show that export diversification is an appropriate lever to take advantage of natural resources. These results suggest that countries need to address the root of structural vulnerability by reducing export concentration to turn the natural resource curse into a blessing.
... En Argentina, Chile y Colombia, el deseo de atraer inmigrantes alentó las inversiones en educación pública y elevó la alfabetización. Los inmigrantes europeos tendían a dar un mayor valor a la educación (Sokoloff y Engerman, 2000). En América Latina, el aumento de centros educativos y la inversión pública estuvo altamente relacionada, lo que significa que el crecimiento económico causó un aumento en la recaudación fiscal y, por ende, en el número de instituciones educativas. ...
En el presente artículo se analiza la evolución histórica del desarrollo de América Latina desde su independencia hasta fines del siglo XIX considerando siete variables: población, salud, comercio externo, Producto Interno Bruto, deuda externa e inversión, educación y migración. Estas variables han permitido ver el panorama del desarrollo de la región desde las dimensiones económica y social. Después de una revisión analítica de la evolución de las variables propuestas, se concluye que la región pasa por dos periodos de crecimiento: el primero comprende las décadas de 1830 a 1860, con un crecimiento lento caracterizado por conflictos regionales y por los constantes impagos de la deuda externa; el segundo, de las décadas de 1870 a 1900, caracterizado por un crecimiento acelerado del pib, de las exportaciones e inversiones, el aumento de los niveles de alfabetización y de las expectativas de vida. Con ello, el incremento económico produjo que los sistemas bancarios se multiplicaran, así como las instituciones educativas y de salud, factores que favorecieron el crecimiento poblacional.
... The less developed countries have been found to grow very slowly, even less than the developed countries. Countries with relative equality and access to public education grew faster and were able to converge on countries with inequality and limited education (Sokoloff & Engerman, 2000). Environmental degradation is a result of every economic activity. ...
The improvement of human well-being is the fundamental objective of the scramble for environmental sustainability. This study aims to investigate the effect of environmental sustainability on inclusive human development in Sub-Saharan Africa. Through the application of a system-GMM to a sample of 49 Sub-Saharan African countries from 2010 to 2017, we found a positive and statistically significant effect of environmental sustainability on inclusive human development in Sub-Saharan countries. Thus, by growing environmentally friendly trees, employing organic manure, and refraining from farming methods that contaminate the environment and expose the soil to erosion, the people of Sub-Saharan Africa should join the global fight for environmental sustainability.
... Societies vary considerably in their extent of economic inequality, and, in recent years, economic inequality has increased across much of the globe [e.g., 1,2] and is expected to continue to increase [3]. There has been growing interest in how inequality shapes people's psychology. ...
Economic inequality has been found to be associated with increased unethical behavior and an increased acceptance of unethical behavior. In this paper we explored whether higher amounts of perceived inequality lead to an increase in the expectation of unethical behavior. We tested whether people would say that they themselves would engage in more unethical behavior in a context of high compared to low inequality. We find evidence for this hypothesis in 3 of 4 studies (n = 3,038). An internal meta-analysis shows a small but significant effect. Such increased expectations that oneself will behave unethically likely has consequences for societal trust and functioning.
... For large parts of Africa, the trans-Atlantic slaves trades as well as later colonial invasions have also often been mentioned as part of the explanation for economic retardation (Rodney, 1972;Acemoglu et al., 2001;Nunn, 2008;Beckert, 2015). Distinctively different forms of colonial rule and settlement patterns also play a major role in debates regarding the North-South Divergence in the Americas (Sokoloff & Engerman, 2000;North et al., 2000;Elliott, 2006;Fukuyama, 2008;Mahoney, 2010). This is not to say that European imperialism plays a major role in all accounts of global economic divergence, as is testified by work on the supposed economic predicaments of Islamism, or in studies pointing to diverging cultural, psychological, or genetic evolutionary trajectories (cf., Kuran, 2011;Henrich, 2020;Galor, 2022). ...
... Alternatively, one can try to understand the miracle in terms of intrafamilial exchange: exposure to, and competition (or threats) from a few states setting the example (e.g., Japan, Singapore), consciously or unconsciously incentivizing other family members to emulate. The concept of family resemblances can also serve as a starting point to explore why so many African economies jointly, and simultaneously, experienced their "lost decades"; or why Latin American states underwent such dramatic political swings between democracy and autocracy in the context of exceptional levels of economic and social inequality (Sokoloff & Engerman, 2000;North et al., 2000). Of course, not every family member necessarily shares all family traits. ...
The Great Divergence debate has been the leading conversation in economic history for the past 25 years. This review article explores new comparative horizons in global economic history. I argue that questions of South–South Divergence form a logical and timely extension to the Great Divergence research agenda. Asia's economic renaissance did not only put an end to a century‐spanning process of widening global income disparities, it also set a new process of divergence within the global south in motion. Deeper understandings of the historical nature and origins of this transition are pertinent in light of the increasing demographic and economic weight of the global south. South–south comparisons also offer an opportunity to counter the dominance of western‐centered and north–south perspectives and incentivize the development of new approaches and theories that go beyond mainstream concepts designed by development economists and political scientists. I argue that these novel approaches will have to grapple with the opportunities and constraints to “late” development being shaped by the quadruple challenge of vast technology gaps, limited state autonomy, global competition , and rapidly closing land and resource frontiers .
... In ancient Greece, for example, philosophy, music, and athletics were central to education. The vast majority of the population remained illiterate, with the vast majority of the elites possessing access to education ( Sokoloff & Engerman, 2000 ). Mediaeval education : Education in mediaeval times was dominated by the church, with monasteries and cathedral schools educating the elite. ...
The application of artificial intelligence (AI) in the field of education has the potential to revolutionise how we approach and think about learning in a sustainable manner. Sustainable education is a method that emphasises instilling a sense of environmental responsibility in students and raising awareness about the significance of environmental stewardship in local communities and on a global scale. This form of education occurs in schools, universities, and other educational institutions. In addition to students of information and communications technology, newly graduated professionals in the field require an intelligent system that is capable of understanding the unique needs of each professional and assisting them in developing their talents to their fullest potential. This chapter provides an overview of the various artificial intelligence (AI) applications that can be used to promote education about sustainable practices, as well as the benefits and potential barriers associated with its adoption. The literature review sheds light on the increasing interest in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in educational settings and the potential for AI to aid in the resolution of sustainability-related problems. The chapter also discusses a range of technologies and their potential applications in sustainable education, including individualised instruction, the development of curricula, the evaluation of student progress, the distribution of resources, and environmental monitoring. According to the findings, artificial intelligence has the potential to increase the effectiveness of sustainability education and promote sustainable practices in educational institutions. Students may be able to learn at their own pace with the aid of personalised learning, which also provides them with personalised recommendations on how to continue their education. The use of AI in the creation of curricula enables educators to create environmentally friendly curricula based on vast amounts of data pertaining to environmental sustainability. AI-based evaluations of student learning have the potential to provide more objective evaluations of student progress, and resource allocation can be distributed more efficiently based on the needs of individual students. Lastly, monitoring the environment with AI can help educational institutions collect data on sustainability-related topics, which can then be used to inform sustainability education. In conclusion, artificial intelligence has the capacity to enhance sustainability education and promote sustainable practices within educational institutions. The chapter also aims to provide educational institutions with a framework for integrating AI into their teaching and learning processes. Also discussed are the ethical and responsible AI methods that should be carefully considered to ensure that the use of AI does not have unintended consequences. As a result, additional research is required to determine the most effective ways to incorporate AI into sustainability-related education and learning processes.
... This line of research is at the core of the debate on human capital and economic development. On the one hand, institutions shape social and economic exchanges and consequently 2 European Review of Economic History economic development (Engerman and Sokoloff 2000;Acemoglu et al. 2001;Ogilvie and Carus 2014). It has also been shown that in some cases, a particular institutional framework could have long-lasting effects (Nunn 2008;Dell 2010;Michalopoulos and Papaioannou 2016), a feature that would be of particular relevance for education, as the stock of human capital has proved central for economic development (Gennaioli et al. 2013;Waldinger 2017;Valencia Caicedo 2019). ...
This article analyses the relationship between institutions and human capital formation. We use literacy rates in 1860 at the municipal level in Valencia where the expulsion of the Moriscos in 1609 was followed by the Christian resettlement. Our findings show that male literacy was consistently lower in Morisco areas by mid-19th century. Yet, the analysis also shows the disappearance of this effect at the beginning of the 20th century. We argue that the deployment of the liberal state would have entailed the gradual decoupling of educational outcomes from the institutional heterogeneity characteristic of the Old Regime.
... This in spite of seminal works hinting at the Caribbean plantation system likely being among the most coercive and unequal society types ever recorded (e.g.,Galenson 1996;Sokoloff and Engerman 2000;Acemoglu, Johnson, and Robinson 2002;Acemoglu and Robinson 2012). ...
In this article, we discuss the sources employed and the methodological choices that entailed assembling a novel, individual-level, large panel dataset containing an incredible wealth of data for a full population in the Caribbeans over the long run, the DWI panel. The panel contains over 1.35 million observations spanning 154 years, well over 100 variables, and its records are linked across sources along demographic and geographic lines throughout the entire period. This richness is all the more valuable in light of the limited source's availability characteristics of the area and is hoped to lead to a renewed debate over our understanding of former slave societies, while fostering collaborations with scholars relying on similar datasets for other areas of the world.
JEL: D31, F54, J47, N01, N36,
... Emphasizing distributive conflicts in the transition to democracy, this literature suggests that wealthy elites with immobile assets support autocratic rule to shield themselves from the threat of taxation. A key example of immobile assets is high levels of landholding inequality, which has been shown to promote autocratic rule, cause corruption, and hinder state building (Acemoglu and Robinson 2006;Boix and Stokes 2003;Dunning 2008;Ross 2011;Sokoloff and Engerman 2000;Ziblatt 2008). ...
... A large literature has shown that natural conditions constrain the type of crops that can be planted, which affects landholding inequality (Baten and Hippe 2018;Baten and Juif 2014;Cinnirella and Hornung 2016;Easterly 2007). For instance, agricultural crops associated with economies of scale (for example, cotton and sugarcane) promote high levels of landholding inequality, whereas geographical characteristics associated with commodities grown on family farms (for example, wheat) promote the growth of a large middle class (Frankema 2010;Sokoloff and Engerman 2000). In the empirical analysis, using district-level data, we show that regional differences in climatic suitability for wheat, soil quality, and ruggedness have generated changes in the concentration of land ownership over time and that high levels of landholding inequality reduce popular support for suffrage extension. ...
... Climatic characteristics that are associated with commodities grown on family farms (for example, wheat) have promoted the growth of a sizeable middle class, which is associated with low levels of landholding inequality 6 Plot size is measured in hectare using six intervals: ≥0.5 to 3, ≥3 to 10, ≥10 to 15, ≥15 to 30, ≥30 to 70, and ≥70. (Baten and Juif 2014;Easterly 2007;Sokoloff and Engerman 2000). Conversely, poorer climatic conditions are linked to large-scale cattle husbandry (Emmenegger, Leemann, and Walter 2021). ...
Does landholding inequality undermine democratization? Recent contributions have challenged the argument that landholding elites oppose suffrage extension if geographically fixed assets are unequally distributed. We advance research on this long-standing question by exploiting exogenous variance to reinvestigate the relationship. Using multiple instruments, we find that landholding inequality decreases support for suffrage extension. By focusing on traditional patterns of social control, we explore an empirically neglected mechanism linking landholding inequality and democratization. Taking advantage of four direct democratic votes between 1866 and 1877 in Switzerland, we demonstrate that landholding inequality also influences the political preferences of ordinary citizens who do not control these resources. This paper shows that high levels of landholding inequality provide local elites with the incentive and the means to align the local population's voting behaviour with their political goals. Supplementary analyses using qualitative and quantitative data further substantiate this social control mechanism.
... Finally, we extend Besley and Burgess (2000) to show that only the states with low land ceiling size had suffered from low capital investment, though they experienced lower poverty rate too. Sokoloff and Engerman (2000) examine the effect of lowering land inequality on growth, arguing that Canada and United States performed better than Argentina and Brazil in the New World of 19th century because they were better able to allocate land to immigrants, thus reducing land inequality more effectively relative to Argentina and Brazil. Their argument however does not contradict our findings. ...
We examine the impact of legislated land ceiling size on capital investment and industrialisation in the Indian states. We argue that India’s land ceiling legislations of 1960s and 1970s, effectively implemented or not, had increased land fragmentation and transactions costs of land acquisition for industries. We build a general equilibrium framework that captures the idea that lack of availability of land constrains industrial development, with an increase in transaction costs adding to such constraints and derive two testable hypotheses: states with smaller ceiling size are likely to have (i) lower capital investment and (ii) lower industrial output. Using state-level data from major Indian states, we find confirmation of both hypotheses, considering both relative (pre/post 1971) and aggregate effects of legislated ceiling size, ceteris paribus. We document that greater land fragmentation triggered by ceiling legislations has led to higher transaction costs of land acquisition for factories in states with lower ceiling size. This finding underscores a potentially crucial dilemma that policymakers must consider.
