Structural Impediments to African Growth? New Evidence from Real Wages in British Africa, 1880-1965
Structural Impediments to African Growth? New Evidence from Real Wages in British Africa, 1880-1965
复制标题
非洲增长的结构性障碍？
DOI：
10.2139/ssrn.1989839
复制
发表时间：
2011
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
E. Frankema
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Marlous van Waijenburg;E. Frankema
最近关于非洲经济史的研究强调了非洲增长面临的结构性障碍，例如不利的地理条件和采掘式殖民体制。证据主要来自20世纪末收入水平的跨国回归，假设随着时间的推移，历史原因的持续影响。但是，非洲的贫困在多大程度上是一个持久的现象？我们的研究为非洲的长期增长轨迹提供了新的证据，从而揭示了这个问题。我们表明，奴隶贸易的倒退对于1970年代之前的人均国内生产总值水平，或者1973年前和1995年后的增长率来说并不强劲。我们采用艾伦(2009)的生活篮子方法，计算了英国非洲九个国家1880-1965年间非洲工人的城市非熟练实际工资。我们发现，实际工资高于最低生活水平，随着时间的推移大幅上升，至少在20世纪30年代之前，在英国非洲的主要地区，实际工资远远高于亚洲城市的实际工资。我们通过不同的殖民制度来解释非洲内部实际工资水平的差异，这些制度涉及土地转让、税收和移民。
Recent studies on African economic history have emphasized the structural impediments to African growth, such as adverse geographical conditions and extractive colonial institutions. The evidence is mainly drawn from cross-country regressions on late 20th century income levels, assuming persistent effects of historical causes over time. But to which extent has African poverty been a persistent phenomenon? Our study sheds light on this question by providing new evidence on long-term African growth-trajectories. We show that slave trade regressions are not robust for pre-1970s GDP per capita levels, or for pre-1973 and post-1995 growth rates. We calculate urban unskilled real wages of African workers in nine British African countries 1880-1965, adopting Allen’s (2009) subsistence basket methodology. We find that real wages were above subsistence level, rose significantly over time and were, in major parts of British Africa, considerably higher than real wages in Asian cities up to, at least the 1930s. We explain the intra-African variation in real wage levels by varying colonial institutions concerning land alienation, taxation and immigration.