Structural Impediments to African Growth? New Evidence from Real Wages in British Africa, 1880-1965

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Wageningen University & Research; Northwestern University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC HISTORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-0507
• DOI: 10.1017/S0022050712000630
• 发表日期: 2012
• 页码: 895-926
• 关键词: global perspective; Great divergence; living standards; LATIN-AMERICA; INEQUALITY; prices; Europe; geography; revenue; Ghana

摘要

Recent literature on the historical determinants of African poverty has emphasized structural impediments to African growth, such as adverse geographical conditions, weak institutions, or ethnic heterogeneity. But has African poverty been a persistent historical phenomenon? This article checks such assumptions against the historical record. We push African income estimates back in time by presenting urban unskilled real wages for nine British African colonies (1880-1965). We find that African real wages were well above subsistence level and that they rose significantly over time. Moreover, in West Africa and Mauritius real wage levels were considerably higher than those in Asia.