Colonial Origin and Human Capital, A cross-country analysis of European colonial Settlement

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2022-12-02

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en

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This research revisits the relation between colonial origin and economic development by focusing directly on the role between European colonial settlement and human capital. By conducting OLS regressions and 2SLS regressions utilizing recent data on European colonial settlement this research finds evidence suggesting a significant cross-country relation between European colonial settlement and human capital. The findings of this research suggest that besides the persistent negative effects of extractive institutions established by prior research, colonial origin also shows positive effects on human capital. These positive effects hold when only including countries with a low European colonial settlement. The findings of this research also suggest that the positive effects on human capital were far greater per settler amongst countries with a low share of European colonial settlement. This suggests that even within extractive colonies European colonizers implemented processes that helped gain long-term development. Further within-country research on these processes could help improve policy directed at improving human capital accumulation in individual formerly colonized countries.

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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen