The Slave Trade and the Origins of Mistrust in Africa

Nunn, Nathan; Wantchékon, Léonard

doi:10.1257/aer.101.7.3221

Cited by 1,551 publications

(721 citation statements)

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“…Partitioning.-While at the time of the colonial border design Europeans had limited understanding of local political geography, it is useful to examine the association between ethnic partitioning and precolonial conflict, as recent cross-country works (Fearon and Laitin 2012) and cross-regional studies reveal a legacy of conflict from the precolonial times to the present (Besley and Reynal-Querol 2014;Nunn and Wantchekon 2011;Depetris Chauvin 2014). Table 1, panel B, examines the association between ethnic partitioning and proxies of precolonial conflict.…”

Section: Precolonial Features and Ethnicmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Nunn (2008) and Nunn and Wantchekon (2011) document that the slave trades (1400-1900) have shaped development by spurring ethnic conflict and lowering trust. Rainer (2006, 2007) and Michalopoulos and Papaioannou (2013) show that precolonial political centralization at the group level is a significant correlate of contemporary development both across and within countries.…”

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confidence: 99%

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The Long-Run Effects of the Scramble for Africa

Michalopoulos

Papaioannou

2016

American Economic Review

317

181

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The predominant explanations on the deep roots of contemporary African development are centered around the influence of Europeans during the colonial period (Acemoglu, Johnson, and Robinson 2001Robinson , 2002Robinson , 2005, but also in the centuries before colonization when close to 20 million slaves were exported from Africa (Nunn 2008). Yet in the period between the ending of the slave trades and the beginning of the colonial rule, another major event took place that, according to the African historiography, had malicious long-lasting consequences. During the "Scramble for Africa," that starts with the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885 and is completed by the turn of the twentieth century, Europeans partitioned Africa into spheres of influence, protectorates, and colonies. The borders were designed in European capitals at a time when Europeans had barely settled in Africa and had limited knowledge of local conditions. Despite their arbitrariness, boundaries outlived the colonial era.

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Section: Precolonial Features and Ethnicmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Long-Run Effects of the Scramble for Africa

Michalopoulos

Papaioannou

2016

American Economic Review

317

181

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“…Fertility behavior of immigrants' children is still influenced by their parents' country of origin (Fernández and Fogli, 2006), language characteristics are associated with savings behavior (Chen, 2013), and inherited trust can influence national growth rates (Algan and Cahuc, 2010). Many attitudes persist over long periods: Italian cities that were self-governing in the Middle Ages are richer and more civic-minded today (Guiso et al, 2007), areas of Africa affected by 19C slave-hunts have lower trust in the present (Nunn and Wantchekon, 2011), and German cities that persecuted their Jews during the Black Death were markedly more anti-Semitic in the 1920s and 1930s (Voigtländer and Voth, 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reprisals Remembered: German-Greek Conflict and Car Sales During the Euro Crisis

Fouka

Voth

2013

SSRN Journal

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During the Greek debt crisis after 2010, the German government insisted on harsh austerity measures. This led to a rapid cooling of relations between the Greek and German governments. We compile a new index of public acrimony between Germany and Greece based on newspaper reports and internet search terms. This information is combined with historical maps on German war crimes during the occupation between 1941 and 1944. During months of open conflict between German and Greek politicians, German car sales fell markedly more than those of cars from other countries. This was especially true in areas affected by German reprisals during World War II: areas where German troops committed massacres and destroyed entire villages curtailed their purchases of German cars to a greater extent during conflict months than other parts of Greece. We conclude that cultural aversion was a key determinant of purchasing behavior, and that memories of past conflict can affect economic choices in a time-varying fashion. These findings are compatible with behavioral models emphasizing the importance of salience for individual decisionmaking.JEL: D12, D74, F14, N14, N44

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“…And how much can policy modify beliefs and attitudes? Attitudes can remain unchanged for long periods of time, and be passed on from parents to children even in a different environment (Nunn and Wantchekon 2011;Guiso, Sapienza, Zingales 2008;Fernandez and Fogli 2009), or they can change radically within a generation or two (Fernandez-Villaverde and Greenwood 2011). The causes for change are typically hard to pin down: Policies and economic incentives interact with cultural preferences in complex ways (Tabellini 2008;Doepke and Zilibotti 2008;Bisin and Verdier 2000).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

(Re-) Shaping Hatred: Anti-Semitic Attitudes in Germany, 1890-2006

Voigtländer,

Voth

2012

SSRN Journal

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In this paper, we assess the determinants of long-run persistence of local culture, and examine the success of policy interventions designed to change attitudes. We analyze anti-Semitic attitudes drawing on individual-level survey results from Germany's social value survey in 1996 and 2006. On average, we find that historical voting patterns for anti-Semitic parties between 1890 and 1933 are powerful predictors of anti-Jewish attitudes today. There is evidence that transmission takes place both vertically (parent to child) and horizontally (among peers). Policy modified German views on Jews in important ways: The cohort that grew up under the Nazi regime shows significantly higher levels of anti-Semitism. After 1945, the victorious Allies implemented denazification programs in their zones of occupation. We use differences in these policies between the occupying powers as a source of identifying variation. The US and French zones today still show high anti-Semitism, reflecting an ambitious botched attempt at denazification. In contrast, the British and Soviet zones, register much lower levels of Jew-hatred.

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The Slave Trade and the Origins of Mistrust in Africa

Cited by 1,551 publications

References 50 publications

The Long-Run Effects of the Scramble for Africa

The Long-Run Effects of the Scramble for Africa

Reprisals Remembered: German-Greek Conflict and Car Sales During the Euro Crisis

(Re-) Shaping Hatred: Anti-Semitic Attitudes in Germany, 1890-2006

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