【AEW Webinar】Private Colonialism in Africa

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• 研討會日期 : 2024-06-27
• 時間 : 15:00
• 主講人 : Professor Elias Papaioannou
• 地點 : Register and join online
• 演講者簡介 : Professor Elias Papaioannou received his Ph.D. from London Business School in 2005. He is the academic director of the Wheeler Institute for Business and Development and an economics professor at London Business School, focusing on international finance, political economy, applied econometrics, growth, and development.
• 演講摘要 : We highlight the role of concessionary companies and private enterprises in colonizing Sub-Saharan Africa and analyze companies’ practices' lasting legacies. First, we map the universe of concession companies across Sub-Saharan Africa and all colonial epochs, codifying their operations (plantation agriculture, charter companies, forestry, mining, trading) and practices (like the use of forced labor, oppression, and genocide) and investments (in roads, railroads, schools, and health). The concessionary paradigm is widespread across all imperial powers and all colonial periods, suggesting a critical omission of recent economics research. There is sizable spatial variation within the colony/protectorate and, over time, with a gradual decline in violence and rising investments. Second, we characterize the presence and practices of concessions across time and colonial power. During the early phase of African colonization, concession companies operated in more remote from the coastline and the main trade routes areas, over time companies locate in closer to the sea areas, with more fertile land, and less disease. Besides, concessionary companies function in higher population density areas, in line with theories stressing the importance of African labor. Third, we explore the legacy of the concessionary paradigm on contemporary development, estimating hundreds of spatial Regression Discontinuity Design (RDD) analyses. There is wide heterogeneity in companies’ legacies as reflected in nighttime lights and development proxies from the Demographic and Health Surveys. The spatial RDD estimates are highly heterogeneous across all colonial powers and main company types, suggesting that extrapolating from single cases is challenging. When distinguishing across company practices, there is evidence that extractive practices related to prison and forced labor, genocide, and oppression of local workers go in handy with lower socio-economic outcomes and luminosity. At the same time, historical investments correlate positively with contemporary development. Fourth, we provide regional aggregates of concessionary companies' presence, operations, and practices that account for local spillovers and noise. Company extraction, violence, and monopsony-monopoly power correlate adversely with household assets, education, and employment in services and manufacturing, while investments in roads, railroads, and schools correlate positively with contemporary development. By bringing to the forefront the role of private concessionary capital and neglected aspects of colonization, the paper calls for research to understand the interplay between the colonial state and companies, the trade-offs of outsourcing colonization to private enterprises, the role of shareholders, and the agency of imperialism.
• Working Paper Title : A Taste of Communists’ Own Medicine: The Political Consequences of Land Reforms in Japan and Taiwan
• Working Paper Speaker : Daniel Minghan Chiang, Elliott Fan, and Yu-Hsiang Dexter Hsu.
• Working Paper Abstract : The Post-WWII land reforms promoted by the US in East Asia were considered as an economic tactic to halt the spread of communism in this area. In this paper we estimate the effectiveness of this geopolitical strategy by exploring the land reforms in Japan and Taiwan, both transferring land ownership from landlords to tenants on a large scale. We find that Japan’s land reform induced votes in favor of the Liberal-Democratic Party and against the Socialist Party and Communist Party, and the effects likely prolonged because the reform shifted the preference of beneficiaries’ second generation toward favoring the Liberal-Democratic Party. For Taiwan, we also find a significant vote-inducing effect of land reform in favor of the Kuomintang, the long-ruling, anti-communism party. Multiple examinations, including the IV method, suggest a causal component of our estimates. These findings suggest that the land reforms were successful in thwarting communism in both countries. Our investigations on individual preferences suggest that the land reform effects likely operated through an enhanced desire for political stability after tenants acquiring land ownership, rather than through reciprocity or a pro-market preference shift.