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The colonial roots of land inequality: geography, factor endowments, or institutions?
Author(s) -
FRANKEMA EWOUT
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
the economic history review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.014
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1468-0289
pISSN - 0013-0117
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0289.2009.00479.x
Subject(s) - colonialism , inequality , context (archaeology) , sierra leone , geography , asset (computer security) , politics , development economics , economic geography , economics , economy , political science , archaeology , law , mathematical analysis , mathematics , computer security , computer science
Land inequality is one of the crucial underpinnings of long‐run persistent wealth and asset inequality. This article assesses the colonial roots of land inequality from a comparative perspective. The evolution of land inequality is analysed in a cross‐colonial multivariate regression framework complemented by an in‐depth comparative case study of three former British colonies: Malaysia, Sierra Leone, and Zambia. The main conclusion is that the literature tends to overemphasize the role of geography and to underestimate the role of pre‐colonial institutions in shaping the colonial political economic context in which land is (re)distributed from natives to colonial settlers.