The Impact of the Transatlantic Slave Trade on Ethnic Stratification in Africa

Warren C. Whatley · Rob Gillezeau

96 citations0/0 files storedAmerican Economic Review

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Culture, Economy, and Development Studies Historical Economic and Social Studies Colonialism, slavery, and trade

Abstract

In the last 15 years, economists and economic historians have argued that Africa has undergone a “reversal of fortune” and that ethnic fragmentation is a significant cause of Africa's underdevelopment. In this article, we join these narratives by arguing that the transatlantic slave trade increased the degree of ethnic heterogeneity in Africa today. Using both correlational and causal instrumental variables analysis, we find an economically and statistically significant positive relationship between slave exports and ethnic heterogeneity. This relationship is robust to changes in the scheme for drawing ethnic boundaries and the choice of observational unit.

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References

2001The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation 2012The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation: Reply 1997Africa's Growth Tragedy: Policies and Ethnic Divisions 2011The Slave Trade and the Origins of Mistrust in Africa 2008The Long-Term Effects of Africa's Slave Trades *2005Institutions and Ethnic Politics in Africa 2008When things fell apart: state failure in late-century Africa 2004British Colonial Legacies and Political Development

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2017State Capacity and Economic Development 2018The Long-Term Effect of Demographic Shocks on the Evolution of Gender Roles: Evidence from the transatlantic Slave Trade 2017The Historical Slave Trade and Firm Access to Finance in Africa 2014Climate and the slave trade 2017The gun-slave hypothesis and the 18th century British slave trade 2020Things fall apart? Missions, institutions, and interpersonal trust

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