“Slavery, Statehood, and Economic Development in Sub-Saharan Africa”, Dirk Bezemer, Jutta Bolt, Robert Lensink2014-05 (economics)⁠:

Although Africa’s indigenous systems of slavery have been extensively described in the historical literature, comparatively little attention has been paid to analyzing its long term impact on economic and political development.

Based on data collected from anthropological records we conduct an econometric analysis. We find that indigenous slavery is robustly and negatively associated with current income levels, but not with income levels immediately after independence.

We explore one channel of transmission from indigenous slavery to income growth consistent with this changing effect over time and find evidence that indigenous slavery impeded the development of capable and accountable states in Africa.

[Keywords: Africa, indigenous slavery, pre-colonial societies, long-term political development, economic growth]

See Also:

• Slavery and the Intergenerational Transmission of Human Capital

• Income and inequality in the Aztec Empire on the eve of the Spanish conquest

• Islam and human capital in historical Spain

• Progress by consent: Adam Smith as development economist

• The Fishers of Men: The Profits of the Slave Trade

• The Intergenerational Effects of a Large Wealth Shock: White Southerners after the Civil War

• Ominous Parallels: What Antebellum America Can Teach Us About Our Modern Political Regime