• DOI:10.1162/rest.91.2.245
Corpus ID: 17184125

Colonialism and Modern Income: Islands as Natural Experiments

@article{Feyrer2009ColonialismAM,
  title={Colonialism and Modern Income: Islands as Natural Experiments},
  author={James D. Feyrer and Bruce I. Sacerdote},
  journal={The Review of Economics and Statistics},
  year={2009},
  volume={91},
  pages={245-262}
}

• James D. Feyrer, Bruce I. Sacerdote
• Published 2009
• Geography
• The Review of Economics and Statistics

Using a new database of islands throughout the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans we find a robust positive relationship between the number of years spent as a European colony and current GDP per capita. We argue that the nature of discovery and colonization of islands provides random variation in the length and type of colonial experience. We instrument for length of colonization using variation in prevailing wind patterns. We argue that wind speed and direction had a significant effect on… Expand

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