Settlers, slaves, and merchants: the role of migrant networks in the economic development of the Americas

人力资本是一个术语，指的是一个人创造价值的能力。如今，拥有高人力资本水平人口的地区更为富裕，但如何解释地区间人力资本的差异呢？人们去哪里，住在哪里，决定了世界上不同地方拥有多少人力资本，进而决定了不同地区的贫富。美洲地区的财富差异不仅取决于现在居住在那里的人，还取决于殖民时期移民和人力资本集中的历史模式。该项目建立了一个大型数据库，记录了殖民时期自愿和非自愿（奴隶）移民的去向。该数据库将包含有关移民来源的信息，他们的教育和职业等人力资本指标，以及从西班牙和非洲到美洲的移民网络地图。该数据库将使研究人员和其他人员了解哪些类型的人力资本是重要的，以及移民的人力资本如何影响不同地区的长期经济发展。该项目将创建一个开放源代码的公共数据库，供学者从社会科学各个领域的历史角度进行移民研究。该数据库将包括所有移民的来源地和目的地、他们的身体特征以及历史和当代社会经济结果。通过一个专门的双语（英语和西班牙语）网站，该项目将提供：(i)能够以开放源代码友好的格式按地区检查数据；载有移徙者主要来源地和目的地资料的历史地图；（iii）关于移民流动的短文；（iv）主要来源的例子；（五）相关参考书目。有了这个全面的数据库，研究人员将能够从多学科的角度回答有关美洲经济发展的大量问题。此外，学生和公众都将能够亲眼目睹塑造了遍布美洲的现代多元文化社会的非凡的人口流动。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Human capital is a term that refers to a person’s ability to produce value. Regions with populations with high levels of human capital are richer today, but what explains the differences in human capital between regions? Where people go and where they live determine how much human capital different places in the world have and in turn how wealthy or poor different regions are. Regional wealth differences in the Americas depend not only on who lives there now, but also on historical patterns of migration and human capital concentration during colonial times. This project develops a large database of where voluntary and involuntary (slaves) migrants went during colonial times. The database will contain information about migrants’ origins, measures of their human capital such as education and occupation, and map migration networks from Spain and Africa to the Americas. The database will allow researchers and others to learn what types of human capital were important and how the human capital of migrants influenced long-term economic development in different regions. This project will create an open-source public database that will be available for scholars to carry out research on migration from a historical perspective in fields across the social sciences. The database will include the origins and destinations of all migrants, their physical attributes, and historical and contemporary socio-economic outcomes. Through a dedicated bilingual (English and Spanish) website, this project will provide: (i) the ability to examine data by regions over time in open-source friendly formats; (ii) historical maps with information on the main regions of origin and destination for migrants; (iii) short essays on migration flows, (iv) examples of primary sources; and (v) relevant bibliography. With this comprehensive database, researchers will be able to answer a large scope of questions about economic development in the Americas from a multidisciplinary perspective. Moreover, students and the public alike will be able to see first-hand the extraordinary flow of people that shaped the modern multicultural societies found all over the Americas.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.