Does land abundance explain African institutions?

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: I show how abundant land and scarce labor shaped African institutions before colonial rule. I present a model in which exogenous land quality and endogenously evolving population determine the existence of land rights, slavery, and polygyny. I use cross-sectional data on pre-colonial African societies to demonstrate that, as in the model, the existence of land rights, slavery, and polygyny occurred where land was most suitable for agriculture, and where population density was greatest. These results are robust to alternative measures of institutions and historical population, and better fit the data than alternative theories of slavery.

Keywords: Land tenure; slavery; polygyny; states; Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N57 O10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr, nep-dev and nep-his
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/30967/2/MPRA_paper_30967.pdf revised version (application/pdf)
https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/34862/2/MPRA_paper_34862.pdf revised version (application/pdf)
https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/35294/2/MPRA_paper_35294.pdf revised version (application/pdf)
https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/37175/2/MPRA_paper_37175.pdf revised version (application/pdf)
https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/39809/1/MPRA_paper_39809.pdf revised version (application/pdf)
https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/42887/2/MPRA_paper_42887.pdf revised version (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Does Land Abundance Explain African Institutions? (2013)
Working Paper: Does Land Abundance Explain African Institutions? (2009)
Working Paper: Does Land Abundance Explain African Institutions? (2009)
Working Paper: Does Land Abundance Explain African Institutions? (2009)
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