Abad, L., Maurer, N. The long shadow of history? the
impact of colonial labor institutions on economic development in Peru. J
Econ Growth 30, 521–565 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10887-024-09249-9
Abstract
We examine a canonical case of forced labor: the mita and the encomienda in colonial Peru. The mita was a labor draft designed to provide workers for mines, churches, and public works in colonial Peru and Bolivia. The encomienda granted a select group of Spanish settlers the right to extract labor and tribute from indigenous peoples. We examine the impact of forced labor using a dataset of 500 indigenous settlements scattered across modern-day Peru. We find that forced labor gravely impacted the Peruvian communities subjected to it, but the effects nearly dissipated before the end of the colonial period (1532-1811). We test for a possible “reversal of fortune” in the postcolonial period by looking at an array of variables for the 19th to the 21st centuries (literacy, access to land, road density, and luminosity) and find no significant differences. The results hold when we examine the mita and encomienda separately. The mechanisms that caused its impact to fade were migration, growing outside options for indigenous labor, and opposition from the Crown and new Spanish settlers who lacked access to forced labor.
Abstract
We examine a canonical case of forced labor: the mita and the encomienda in colonial Peru. The mita was a labor draft designed to provide workers for mines, churches, and public works in colonial Peru and Bolivia. The encomienda granted a select group of Spanish settlers the right to extract labor and tribute from indigenous peoples. We examine the impact of forced labor using a dataset of 500 indigenous settlements scattered across modern-day Peru. We find that forced labor gravely impacted the Peruvian communities subjected to it, but the effects nearly dissipated before the end of the colonial period (1532-1811). We test for a possible “reversal of fortune” in the postcolonial period by looking at an array of variables for the 19th to the 21st centuries (literacy, access to land, road density, and luminosity) and find no significant differences. The results hold when we examine the mita and encomienda separately. The mechanisms that caused its impact to fade were migration, growing outside options for indigenous labor, and opposition from the Crown and new Spanish settlers who lacked access to forced labor.
Dell, M. Persistence and transformation in economic
development. Ind. Econ. Rev. 56, 285–311 (2021).
https://doi.org/10.1007/s41775-021-00122-9
Abstract
Much work in economic history has been done to study patterns of development in the USA and Europe. However, insights from other areas and regions are also required to better inform policy today that helps elucidate how policy interacts with the broader historical and institutional context and how the effects of these policies unfold over time. In this light, the paper focuses on illustrations from previous works of the author on extractive colonial institutions and their persistent effects on development paths later on. The first example is of the Peruvian mining mita. Here, the natives of Peru were forced by the Spanish to work in silver mines. The study focusses on the persistence of differential land tenures and public goods provision. The second example, a joint work with Ben Olken, considers Java's cultivation system in the 19th century, where the Javanese were forced to produce sugar that was sold in the world market by the Dutch. It shows that the sugar factory areas of the 19th century are more industrialized today. They are richer with better infrastructure and education levels as compared to the nearby counterfactual locations.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s41775-021-00122-9
Abstract
Much work in economic history has been done to study patterns of development in the USA and Europe. However, insights from other areas and regions are also required to better inform policy today that helps elucidate how policy interacts with the broader historical and institutional context and how the effects of these policies unfold over time. In this light, the paper focuses on illustrations from previous works of the author on extractive colonial institutions and their persistent effects on development paths later on. The first example is of the Peruvian mining mita. Here, the natives of Peru were forced by the Spanish to work in silver mines. The study focusses on the persistence of differential land tenures and public goods provision. The second example, a joint work with Ben Olken, considers Java's cultivation system in the 19th century, where the Javanese were forced to produce sugar that was sold in the world market by the Dutch. It shows that the sugar factory areas of the 19th century are more industrialized today. They are richer with better infrastructure and education levels as compared to the nearby counterfactual locations.