The European origins of economic development

@article{Easterly2012TheEO,
  title={The European origins of economic development},
  author={William Russell Easterly and Ross Levine},
  journal={Journal of Economic Growth},
  year={2012},
  volume={21},
  pages={225-257}
}
Although a large literature argues that European settlement outside of Europe during colonization had an enduring effect on economic development, researchers have been unable to assess these predictions directly because of an absence of data on colonial European settlement. We construct a new database on the European share of the population during colonization and examine its association with economic development today. We find a strong, positive relation between current income per capita and… 
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