Dispersion and distortions in the trans-Atlantic slave trade

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Dalton, John T.; Leung, Tin Cheuk
• 署名单位: Wake Forest University; Chinese University of Hong Kong
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-1996
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jinteco.2015.03.002
• 发表日期: 2015
• 页码: 412-425
• 关键词: Slave trades; Market distortions; Output dispersion; PRODUCTIVITY

摘要

Market distortions can lead to resource misallocation, which can further lead to inefficiency. Throughout the history of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, qualitative evidence of various sources of distortion abounds. No study, however, has quantified the inefficiency in the slave trade due to these distortions. We use a structural approach to identify the dispersion of distortions in the slave trade from wedges in first order conditions. We then calculate the TFP gains had the dispersion of distortions disappeared. Two main results emerge. First, dispersion of distortions had the smallest damage to TFP in Great Britain, followed by Portugal, and then France. Second, dispersion of distortions in the product market had a bigger impact on TFP than that of the capital and labor markets. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.