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on Economic Growth |
| By: | Faguet, Jean-Paul; Matajira, Camilo; Sánchez, Fabio |
| Abstract: | The Spanish encomienda, a colonial forced-labour institution that lasted three centuries, killed many indigenous people and caused others to flee into nomadism. What were its long-term effects? We digitize a great deal of historical data from the mid-1500s onwards, impute prehispanic populations at municipal level, and reconstruct the Spanish conquerors’ route through Colombia using detailed topographical features to calculate their least-cost path. We show that Colombian municipalities with encomiendas in 1560 enjoy better outcomes today across multiple dimensions of development than those without: higher municipal GDP per capita, tax receipts, and educational attainment; lower infant mortality, poverty, and unsatisfied basic needs; larger populations; and superior fiscal performance and bureaucratic efficiency, but also higher inequality. Why? Mediation analysis using data on local institutions, populations and racial composition in 1794 shows that encomiendas affected development primarily by helping build the local state. Deep historical evidence fleshes out how encomenderos founded local institutions early on in the places they settled. Places lacking encomiendas also lacked local states, often for centuries. Local institutions mobilized public investment in ways that doubtless suited encomenderos, but, over time, spurred greater economic and human development. |
| Keywords: | Encomienda; institutions; forced labor; state capacity; extraction; colonialism; development; Colombia |
| JEL: | N36 N96 O10 |
| Date: | 2026–03–30 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:128579 |
| By: | Balestra, Mattia; Cainelli, Giulio; Ganau, Roberto; Matsiuk, Nadiia; Pasquato, Mario; Pierdicca, Roberto |
| Abstract: | We combine history with economic geography to shed light on the long-run determinants of territorial development differentials in Italy. Specifically, we study the effects of historical sovereignty change on current local economic development. We measure historical sovereignty change as the yearly number of changes of sovereignty that occurred in the period 1000–1861—that is, until the unification of Italy—and assess its effects on labor productivity in 2018. We estimate a negative effect of historical sovereignty change on current local economic development, and identify—both theoretically and empirically—civic capital as a plausible underlying mechanism. |
| Keywords: | historical sovereignty change; civic capital; Italy; local economic development |
| JEL: | R11 N00 |
| Date: | 2026–05–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:138356 |
| By: | Teresa C. Fort; Nathan Goldschlag; Jack Liang; Peter K. Schott; Nikolas Zolas |
| Abstract: | Relatively flat US productivity growth versus rising R&D expenditures is often interpreted as evidence that ideas are getting harder to find. We build a new 45-year panel tracking the universe of US firms' patenting to investigate the micro underpinnings of this conclusion, separately examining the relationships between research inputs and ideas (patents) versus ideas and growth. We find that average patents per R&D input are increasing, the elasticity of patents to R&D inputs is flat or rising, and there is not systematic evidence of a secular decline in patenting after controlling for research inputs. We then document a positive, significant, and fairly steady relationship between firms' patent and labor productivity growth rates. Average firm growth after controlling for patent growth, however, declines. Together, these results suggest that firms' innovative efforts play a key role in sustaining growth that has not diminished over the last four decades. |
| JEL: | E0 O36 O40 O41 O47 |
| Date: | 2026–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:35182 |
| By: | Lisa Chauvet; Abel Francois; Jean Lacroix |
| Abstract: | How do conflicts shape territories in the long run? To answer this question, this paper dissects population dynamics within Normandy throughout the 20th century. Despite the destruction caused by the 1944 Allied Landings, Normandy reversed the demographic decline it had experienced until 1940 — a dynamic at odds with previous literature showing a negative or neutral effect of conflicts. Using a difference-in-differences estimator, we confirm that within Normandy, combat duration dampened population growth in the short run. In the medium run, areas exposed to combat recovered and later overshot the population levels implied by their initial trend. An analysis of a comprehensive inventory of all dwelling units 25 years after WWII suggests that the post-war reconstruction effort explains this counterintuitive pattern. These results evidence the importance of reconstruction policies after conflicts. Beyond geographic fundamentals and random factors, they carve the spatial distribution of economic activities. |
| Keywords: | conflict, World War II, reconstruction, economic geography |
| JEL: | N44 N94 R12 J10 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12658 |