Comments on: Development has a long memory: Children stunted today because of slavery in 1573

By: uberVU - social comments

uberVU - social comments — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 12:31:18 +0000

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This post was mentioned on Twitter by mikegechter_rss: Development has a Long Memory: Children Stunted Today because of Slavery in 1573: Fascinating paper by Melissa Del… http://bit.ly/ct0u7e...

By: gaddeswarup

gaddeswarup — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 05:02:30 +0000

The Incas themselves seem to have adopted a pre-existing system and the Inca system was much distorted by the Spanish:
http://www.machupicchu-inca.com/inca-mita.html
Incas had also mitma(?) system which introduced new settlers in conquered territories.
About insider-outsider questions, there may be several studies from India, where people (not as conqueres) migrated from one region to other, some times within the same liguistic regions, often utilized the existing rules and regulations. But in many places, they are seen as exploiters. A recent example is discussed here:
http://www.epw.org.in/epw/uploads/articles/14380.pdf
I am beginner trying to understand these topics (and mathematician by profession)and responded because nobdy else did.

By: New Feature: Friday Links « Open Economics

New Feature: Friday Links « Open Economics — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 18:41:53 +0000

[...] Aid Watch: Indigenous slavery has lasting effects on development (the human kind) [...]

By: Ted H

Ted H — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 15:09:46 +0000

Perhaps I am mistaken, but wasn’t the mita an Incan system that was in place prior to the Spanish conquest? If I remember my history correct, the Spanish high jacked the system and used methods of trapping people in debt to make them de facto slaves forever whereas under Incan rule it was more of a communist-like collective good thing. My first concern was that the author didn’t really control for the fact the mita system existed under Inca rule, but I suppose the system was so corrupted under the Spanish that it probably isn’t effecting any of the results.

Anyway, interesting paper though. It’s one of those things that makes me wonder if a historical unit root of sorts exists in poor countries today.

But, I have a separate, though somewhat related, question for Bill Easterly (or another commentator if they happen to know). I’m studying macro, but I tend to follow a lot of the development literature just out of interest – but I don’t know all of it so forgive me if this is a stupid question. Does “outsider”-rule make institutions and governments less effective even if they structurally aren’t bad (I’m thinking like if the Spanish maintained the mita system as-is, would it have made any difference?). Let’s say a form of government is in place, but an outside power (a colonizer, a military junta etc) seizes control. Hypothetically, if the institutional structure and other aspects of government are unchanged, does it have any effect on growth? I was wondering if a system that is run by someone viewed as an “outsider” to the citizens becomes inherently less effective because it lacks credibility and, if so, how damaging is that lack of credibility (I guess I’m falling back on my institutional credibility stuff from monetary theory)? I was just wondering if a study like that has ever been done, and if one has, what it’s outcome was (I tried to search for papers on that, but no luck).