IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/deveco/v108y2014icp32-53.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Labor coercion and the accumulation of human capital

Author

Listed:
  • Bobonis, Gustavo J.
  • Morrow, Peter M.

Abstract

This paper examines the effect of labor coercion on human capital accumulation. We use micro data from Puerto Rico, where unskilled laborers were forced to work for landowners during 1849–1874. Using variation in municipality-level suitability for coffee cultivation and international coffee prices, we estimate the response of schooling to exogenous increases in relative demand for unskilled labor in regimes with and without forced labor. During the coercive regime, increased coffee prices had no effect on individuals' literacy rates in coffee growing regions. Following the abolition of forced labor in 1874, similar changes in coffee prices reduced literacy rates by 12%, consistent with a diminished skill premium in the free labor market regime relative to the coercive period.

Suggested Citation

  • Bobonis, Gustavo J. & Morrow, Peter M., 2014. "Labor coercion and the accumulation of human capital," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 32-53.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:deveco:v:108:y:2014:i:c:p:32-53
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2014.01.004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304387814000066
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2014.01.004?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mitchener, Kris James & McLean, Ian W, 2003. "The Productivity of US States since 1880," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 8(1), pages 73-114, March.
    2. Edward L. Glaeser & Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes & Andrei Shleifer, 2004. "Do Institutions Cause Growth?," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 9(3), pages 271-303, September.
    3. A. Colin Cameron & Jonah B. Gelbach & Douglas L. Miller, 2008. "Bootstrap-Based Improvements for Inference with Clustered Errors," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 90(3), pages 414-427, August.
    4. Martínez André & Viarengo Martina & Musacchio Aldo, 2010. "The Great Leap Forward: The Political Economy of Education in Brazil, 1889-1930," Working Papers 2010-18, Banco de México.
    5. Oded Galor & Omer Moav & Dietrich Vollrath, 2009. "Inequality in Landownership, the Emergence of Human-Capital Promoting Institutions, and the Great Divergence," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 76(1), pages 143-179.
    6. Robert H. Bates, 1998. "Open-Economy Politics: The Political Economy of the World Coffee Trade," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 6067.
    7. Guido W. Imbens & Jeffrey M. Wooldridge, 2009. "Recent Developments in the Econometrics of Program Evaluation," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 47(1), pages 5-86, March.
    8. Domar, Evsey D., 1970. "The Causes of Slavery or Serfdom: A Hypothesis," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 30(1), pages 18-32, March.
    9. Galor, Oded, 2005. "From Stagnation to Growth: Unified Growth Theory," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 4, pages 171-293, Elsevier.
    10. Nancy L. Stokey, 1991. "Human Capital, Product Quality, and Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 106(2), pages 587-616.
    11. Melissa Dell, 2010. "The Persistent Effects of Peru's Mining Mita," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 78(6), pages 1863-1903, November.
    12. Francisco A. Gallego, 2010. "Historical Origins of Schooling: The Role of Democracy and Political Decentralization," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 92(2), pages 228-243, May.
    13. Alston, Lee J. & Mattiace, Shannan & Nonnenmacher, Tomas, 2009. "Coercion, Culture, and Contracts: Labor and Debt on Henequen Haciendas in Yucatán, Mexico, 1870–1915," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 69(1), pages 104-137, March.
    14. Jonathan Conning, 2004. "The Causes of Slavery or Serfdom and the Roads to Agrarian Capitalism: Domar's Hypothesis Revisited," Economics Working Paper Archive at Hunter College 401, Hunter College Department of Economics.
    15. Daron Acemoglu & Alexander Wolitzky, 2011. "The Economics of Labor Coercion," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 79(2), pages 555-600, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Suresh Naidu & Noam Yuchtman, 2011. "Coercive Contract Enforcement: Law and the Labor Market in 19th Century Industrial Britain," NBER Working Papers 17051, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Graziella Bertocchi, 2015. "Slavery, racial inequality, and education," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 122-122, February.
    3. Graziella Bertocchi, 2016. "The legacies of slavery in and out of Africa," IZA Journal of Migration and Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 5(1), pages 1-19, December.
    4. Saleh, Mohamed, 2022. "Trade, Slavery, and State Coercion of Labor: Egypt During the First Globalization Era," CEPR Discussion Papers 14542, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    5. Quamrul H. Ashraf & Francesco Cinnirella & Oded Galor & Boris Gershman & Erik Hornung, 2017. "Capital-Skill Complementarity and the Emergence of Labor Emancipation," CESifo Working Paper Series 6423, CESifo.
    6. Quamrul H. Ashraf & Francesco Cinnirella & Oded Galor & Boris Gershman & Erik Hornung, 2017. "Capital-Skill Complementarity and the Emergence of Labor Emancipation," CESifo Working Paper Series 6423, CESifo.
    7. Bertocchi, Graziella & Dimico, Arcangelo, 2020. "Bitter Sugar: Slavery and the Black Family," GLO Discussion Paper Series 564, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    8. Buggle, Johannes C. & Nafziger, Steven, 2018. "The slow road from serfdom: Labor coercion and long-run development in the former Russian Empire," BOFIT Discussion Papers 22/2018, Bank of Finland Institute for Emerging Economies (BOFIT).
    9. Bertocchi, Graziella & Dimico, Arcangelo, 2014. "Slavery, education, and inequality," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 197-209.
    10. Ali, Daniel Ayalew & Deininger, Klaus, 2021. "Does title increase large farm productivity? Institutional determinants of large land-based investments' performance in Zambia," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315328, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    11. Francesco Caselli & Guy Michaels, 2013. "Do Oil Windfalls Improve Living Standards? Evidence from Brazil," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 5(1), pages 208-238, January.
    12. Anastasia Litina & Èric Roca Fernández, 2020. "Celestial enlightenment: eclipses, curiosity and economic development among pre-modern ethnic groups [Working Papers / Documents de travail]," Working Papers halshs-03044843, HAL.
    13. Esposito, Elena, 2015. "Side Effects of Immunities: the African Slave Trade," Economics Working Papers MWP2015/09, European University Institute.
    14. Galan, Juan Sebastian, 2011. "The Long Trace of Inequality: Evidence from Cundinamarca, Colombia," Documentos CEDE Series 107398, Universidad de Los Andes, Economics Department.
    15. Peter Sandholt Jensen & Cristina Victoria Radu & Battista Severgnini & Paul Sharp, 2018. "The introduction of serfdom and labour markets," Working Papers 0140, European Historical Economics Society (EHES).
    16. Danzer, Alexander M. & Grundke, Robert, 2016. "Coerced Labor in the Cotton Sector: How Global Commodity Prices (Don't) Transmit to the Poor," IZA Discussion Papers 9971, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Ali, Daniel Ayalew & Deininger, Klaus, 2022. "Institutional determinants of large land-based investments’ performance in Zambia: Does title enhance productivity and structural transformation?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    18. Graziella Bertocchi & Arcangelo Dimico, 2020. "Bitter Sugar: Slavery and the Black Family," Department of Economics 0172, University of Modena and Reggio E., Faculty of Economics "Marco Biagi".
    19. Christian Dippel & Avner Greif & Daniel Trefler, 2020. "Outside Options, Coercion, and Wages: Removing the Sugar Coating," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 130(630), pages 1678-1714.
    20. Nunn, Nathan & Trefler, Daniel, 2014. "Domestic Institutions as a Source of Comparative Advantage," Handbook of International Economics, in: Gopinath, G. & Helpman, . & Rogoff, K. (ed.), Handbook of International Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 0, pages 263-315, Elsevier.
    21. Geloso, Vincent & Kufenko, Vadim & Arsenault-Morin, Alex P., 2023. "The lesser shades of labor coercion: The impact of seigneurial tenure in nineteenth-century Quebec," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    22. Graziella Bertocchi, 2016. "The Legacies of Slavery in and out of Africa," Department of Economics 0096, University of Modena and Reggio E., Faculty of Economics "Marco Biagi".
    23. Danzer, Alexander M. & Grundke, Robert, 2020. "Export price shocks and rural labor markets: The role of labor market distortions," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    24. Marein, Brian, 2022. "Colonial Roads and Regional Inequality," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    25. Esteban Méndez & Diana Van Patten, 2022. "Multinationals, Monopsony, and Local Development: Evidence From the United Fruit Company," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 90(6), pages 2685-2721, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Tyrefors, Björn & Lindgren, Erik & Pettersson-Lidbom, Per, 2017. "The Political Economics of Growth, Labor Control and Coercion: Evidence from a Suffrage Reform," Working Paper Series 1172, Research Institute of Industrial Economics, revised 24 Sep 2019.
    2. Tyrefors Hinnerich, Bjorn & Lindgren, Erik & Pettersson-Lidbom, Per, 2017. "Political Power, Resistance to Technological Change and Economic Development: Evidence from the 19th century Sweden," Research Papers in Economics 2017:5, Stockholm University, Department of Economics.
    3. Lindgren, Erik & Pettersson-Lidbom, Per & Tyrefors, Björn, 2020. "The Causal Effect of Political Power on the Provision of Public Education: Evidence from a Weighted Voting System," Working Paper Series 1315, Research Institute of Industrial Economics, revised 29 May 2021.
    4. Cinnirella, Francesco & Hornung, Erik, 2016. "Landownership concentration and the expansion of education," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 135-152.
    5. Erik Hornung, 2012. "Human Capital, Technology Diffusion, and Economic Growth - Evidence from Prussian Census Data," ifo Beiträge zur Wirtschaftsforschung, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, number 46.
    6. Gustavo J Bobonis, 2008. "Endowments, Coercion, and the Historical Containment of Education," Working Papers tecipa-335, University of Toronto, Department of Economics.
    7. Quamrul Ashraf & Oded Galor, 2013. "The 'Out of Africa' Hypothesis, Human Genetic Diversity, and Comparative Economic Development," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(1), pages 1-46, February.
    8. Melissa Rubio-Ramos, 2022. "From Plantations to Prisons: The Race Gap in Incarceration After the Abolition of Slavery in the U.S," ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series 195, University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany.
    9. Basher, Syed A. & Lagerlöf, Nils-Petter, 2008. "Per-capita income gaps across US states and Canadian provinces," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 1173-1187, September.
    10. Jensen, Peter Sandholt & Radu, Cristina Victoria & Severgnini, Battista & Sharp, Paul, 2018. "The introduction of serfdom and labor markets," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 393, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    11. Fabrice Murtin & Martina Viarengo, 2007. "The convergence process of compulsory schooling in Western Europe: 1950-2000," PSE Working Papers halshs-00588053, HAL.
    12. Bezemer, Dirk & Bolt, Jutta & Lensink, Robert, 2014. "Slavery, Statehood, and Economic Development in Sub-Saharan Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 148-163.
    13. Paola Azar Dufrechou, 2018. "Electoral politics and the diffusion of primary schooling: evidence from Uruguay, 1914-1954," Working Papers wpdea1801, Department of Applied Economics at Universitat Autonoma of Barcelona.
    14. Buggle, Johannes C. & Nafziger, Steven, 2018. "The slow road from serfdom: Labor coercion and long-run development in the former Russian Empire," BOFIT Discussion Papers 22/2018, Bank of Finland Institute for Emerging Economies (BOFIT).
    15. Jones, C.I., 2016. "The Facts of Economic Growth," Handbook of Macroeconomics, in: J. B. Taylor & Harald Uhlig (ed.), Handbook of Macroeconomics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 3-69, Elsevier.
    16. Vitantonio Mariella, 2023. "Landownership concentration and human capital accumulation in post-unification Italy," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 36(3), pages 1695-1764, July.
    17. Auray, Stéphane & Eyquem, Aurélien & Jouneau-Sion, Frédéric, 2014. "Modeling tails of aggregate economic processes in a stochastic growth model," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 76-94.
    18. Bautista, María Angélica & González, Felipe & Martinez, Luis R. & Muñoz, Pablo & Prem, Mounu, 2020. "Dictatorship, Higher Education, and Social Mobility," SocArXiv 6st9r, Center for Open Science.
    19. Kourtellos, Andros & Stylianou, Ioanna & Tan, Chih Ming, 2013. "Failure to launch? The role of land inequality in transition delays," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 98-113.
    20. Nunn, Nathan & Trefler, Daniel, 2014. "Domestic Institutions as a Source of Comparative Advantage," Handbook of International Economics, in: Gopinath, G. & Helpman, . & Rogoff, K. (ed.), Handbook of International Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 0, pages 263-315, Elsevier.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Labor coercion; Human capital; Historical development;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J41 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Labor Contracts
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • N36 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - Latin America; Caribbean

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:deveco:v:108:y:2014:i:c:p:32-53. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/devec .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.