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The Historical Slave Trade and Firm Access to Finance in Africa

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  • Lamar Pierce
  • Jason A. Snyder

Abstract

Access to finance helps explain the link between the historical African slave trade and current gross domestic product. We first present mistrust, weakened institutions, and ethnic fractionalization as plausible historical channels linking the slave trade to modern finance and development. We then show (i) the slave trade is consistently linked to reduced access to the formal and trade credit needed by modern firms, (ii) this shortage particularly reduces capital investment in smaller firms not in business groups, and (iii) the slave trade cannot explain most other business obstacles, suggesting that long-term societal shocks are exceptionally important for finance. Received December 16, 2014; editorial decision June 29, 2017 by Editor Philip Strahan.

Suggested Citation

  • Lamar Pierce & Jason A. Snyder, 2018. "The Historical Slave Trade and Firm Access to Finance in Africa," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 31(1), pages 142-174.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:rfinst:v:31:y:2018:i:1:p:142-174.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/rfs/hhx091
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    Cited by:

    1. Leonardo M. Klüppel & Lamar Pierce & Jason A. Snyder, 2018. "Perspective—The Deep Historical Roots of Organization and Strategy: Traumatic Shocks, Culture, and Institutions," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(4), pages 702-721, August.
    2. Adjisse, Sossou Simplice, 2022. "The Legacy of the Transatlantic and Indian Ocean Slave Trades on Contemporary Intent to Migrate in Africa," 2022 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Anaheim, California 322512, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    3. Fromentin, Vincent & Leon, Florian, 2019. "Remittances and credit in developed and developing countries: A dynamic panel analysis," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 310-320.
    4. Chenjian Zhang, 2022. "Formal and informal institutional legacies and inward foreign direct investment into firms: Evidence from China," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 53(6), pages 1228-1256, August.
    5. Alexander Donges & Jean-Marie Meier & Rui C. Silva, 2023. "The Impact of Institutions on Innovation," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(4), pages 1951-1974, April.
    6. Christoph Scherrer, 2018. "The Disrupted Passage from an Agrarian Rural to an Industrial Urban Workforce in Most Countries in the Global South," Agrarian South: Journal of Political Economy, Centre for Agrarian Research and Education for South, vol. 7(3), pages 301-319, December.
    7. Olayinka Oyekola & Meryem Duygun & Samuel Odewunmi & Temitope Fagbemi, 2023. "Political risk and external finance: Evidence from cross-country firm-level data," Discussion Papers 2312, University of Exeter, Department of Economics.
    8. Ze Chen & Yuan Wang & Yanjun Guan & Michael Jie Guo & Rong Xu, 2023. "Long‐term effect of childhood pandemic experience on medical major choice: Evidence from the 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak in China," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(5), pages 1120-1147, May.
    9. Xu, Jian & Liu, Yu & Abdoh, Hussein, 2022. "Foreign ownership and productivity," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 624-642.
    10. Yabibal M. Walle, 2023. "Social Cohesion and Firms’ Access to Finance in Africa," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 167(1), pages 27-46, June.
    11. An, Jiafu & Hou, Wenxuan & Lin, Chen, 2022. "Epidemic disease and financial development," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(1), pages 332-358.
    12. Natividad, Gabriel, 2019. "Stunted firms: The long-term impacts of colonial taxation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(3), pages 525-548.
    13. Liu, Xianda & Hou, Wenxuan & Main, Brian G.M., 2022. "Anti-market sentiment and corporate social responsibility: Evidence from anti-Jewish pogroms," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    14. Nicola Limodio & Francesco Strobbe, 2023. "Liquidity Requirements, Bank Deposits and Financial Development," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 90(357), pages 240-270, January.
    15. Gershman, Boris, 2020. "Witchcraft beliefs as a cultural legacy of the Atlantic slave trade: Evidence from two continents," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).

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