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- von Fintel, Dieter, et al.
(författare)
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Estimating Historical Inequality from Social Tables: Towards Methodological Consistency
- 2023
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Research on long-term historical inequality has expanded to include previously neglected periods and societies, particularly in the global South. This is partly due to the resurgence of the social tables method in economic history, an approach which uses archival records to reconstruct income and wealth distributions in contexts where micro data is unavailable. This methodcan cause a downward bias in estimating inequality, but there is limited evidence of this bias in economic history. We collected a new data set of 108 historical social tables spanning over a 1000 years. We found that the compilers consistently made careful methodological choices that took data limitations into account. We found that the inequality estimates are not systematically related to the number of classes chosen or the size of the top class, but that choosing bottom classes that bundle together even small variations in income or wealth can introduce a downward bias to the inequality estimates. This drawback can be overcome by using methodological cohesion to mitigate the problem of limited information about the poorest classes in colonial archives.
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2. |
- Andersson, Martin, et al.
(författare)
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Development under the surface– unintended consequences of settler institutions in Southern Rhodesia, 1896-1962
- 2013
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- According to the debate on the long-term impact of colonialism, the central concern is the institutions the colonial powers imposed on the colonies. The main line of argument in this paradigm is that such institutions, once jelled, persisted and provide explanations to current-day development success or failure. While this ‘from above’ perspective might be natural and reflect the fact that colonial powers indeed are alien rulers declaring supremacy imposing a layer of arrangements for governing the society, the analysis is nevertheless often partial. What this debate misses is that institutions might create a multitude of social forces, some of them perhaps in opposing directions and development dynamics might come about in an unexpected manner. The aim of this paper is to take the case of Southern Rhodesia (c. 1900-1962) – a typical African settler economy - to further add to this discussion by shedding light on a largely discounted economic phenomenon taking place in the rural economy, namely the rise of commercially oriented Africans, in the study epitomized by the Native Purchase Area farmers, that expanded their market activities by intensified use of land and labour. We argue that the relative success of this group largely could be understood as an unintended consequence of settler-oriented colonial institutions
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3. |
- Bolt, Jutta, et al.
(författare)
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Was the wage burden too heavy? : Profitability and wage shares of settler agriculture in colonial Malawi, c 1900-1960
- 2014
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The historical role of European farming in southern and central Africa is a delicate matter that has received a great deal of attention among scholars over the years. Going through this vast literature a striking consensus emerges: success or failure of European farming in southern Africa was to a large extent depending on their access and control over labour. These propositions have so far never been systematically and empirically tested. This paper is an attempt to do that by analyzing the ‘wage-burden’ European settler farmers faced. The wage-burden is identified by measuring wage shares (total amount paid in the form of wages as a share of total profits) on European farms in colonial Africa. Based on archival documents we construct time-series for value of output, transportation costs, investments and wage shares for European tobacco and tea farms in colonial Malawi. Our estimates show that the wage burden decreased significantly after 1930s, i.e. the European farmers were able to capture a larger part of the rent over time. We argue that the developments cannot be explained by domestic colonial policies, but changes in regional migration patterns, which had a significant impact on the supply of farm labour.
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4. |
- Cilliers, Jeanne, et al.
(författare)
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Did it pay to be a pioneer? Wealth accumulation in a newly settled frontier society
- 2022
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- While wealth-holding patterns in rural areas have been well studied, the link between initial conditions, prospects for wealth accumulation, and the persistence of inequality at an agricultural frontier is less clear. On the one hand, the frontier is thought to have had a levelling effect, with the availability of cheap land acting as an equalizer. On the other hand, land rents, accumulated during the settlement process, are thought to have the opposite effect. In this paper, we contribute to the debate on inequality in pre-industrial societies using a unique dataset that allows us to identify different wealth-accumulation strategies in an agrarian frontier society: the Graaff-Reinet district in South Africa’s Cape Colony between 1786-1850.
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6. |
- Green, Erik
(författare)
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Bra med ny Afrikapolitik
- 2007
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Ingår i: Aktuellt i Politiken. - 1403-7505.
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Annan publikation (populärvet., debatt m.m.)
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7. |
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8. |
- Green, Erik
(författare)
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Involutionary Growth in a Labour-Scarce Economy. A dialectic interpretation of the boom and bust of cocoa production in Ghana, c. 1890-1970
- 2013
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The use of the analytical tools of classic and neo-classic economics has played a significant role in the study of Africa’s economic history since the 1970s. In this paper, we summon this body of work under the paradigm of Smithian growth models. Although different in techniques and approaches, this work shares a use of markets as the organising principle of the study. The aim of this paper is to critically reflect on the validity of Smithian models. We use the boom and bust of cocoa production in Ghana as an example, and conclude that while Smithian approaches provide valid explanations for the initial expansion, but are less suitable for explaining economic decline. The latter is explained by factors that are found outside of the realm of economics and thereby detached from the economic forces that account for the initial boom. We present a different analytical framework – based on the concepts of involutionary growth and forest rents – and argue that the decline in cocoa production was endogenously driven by the specific structural conditions created by cocoa production. We argue that our tentative dialectic interpretation is theoretically more consistent and empirically more plausible than previous Smithian analyses.
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10. |
- Green, Erik, et al.
(författare)
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Labour, Capital and Property Rights in a Land Abundant Peasant Economy : Explaining the Relative Success of Native Purchase Farmers in Southern Rhodesia, c. 1930-1960
- 2021
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The lack of secure property rights has been identified by a number of economists – past and present – as an obstacle for long-term growth of output of African farming. The foundation for such a claim is that insecure property rights hinder long-term capital investments. Although the observed infrequency of private property rights in African history is correct there are exceptions. This paper examines one of these exceptions, namely the so-called African Native Purchase farmers in colonial Zimbabwe (Southern Rhodesia from here). The Native Purchase (NP) farmers consisted of a group of Africans that were allowed and able to buy land in specially designated areas. In this paper we analyse the performance of the Native Purchase farmers from their establishment in the 1930s up to 1960, both in terms of output and yields. At first glance, it seems like our case verifies the economic view taken by the proponents of secure property rights. We show that the average NP performed far better than the average African farmer in the Reserve (known as communal land/area after Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980). Differently from what one would expect from conventional economic theory the chief differences between the NP and Africans in the reserves was not only capital, but also labour intensity. NP farmers applied more labour-intensive methods than the average farmer in the so-called Native Reserves. Grounded in the factor endowments literature and the concept of interlinked contracts we argue that the relative success of the NP farmers in Southern Rhodesia was largely an outcome of their capacity to use their control over land to access additional labour through share-cropping and tenancy contracts.
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