The Historical Slave Trade and Firm Access to Finance in Africa

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Pierce, Lamar; Snyder, Jason A.
• 署名单位: Washington University (WUSTL); Utah System of Higher Education; University of Utah
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF FINANCIAL STUDIES
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0893-9454
• DOI: 10.1093/rfs/hhx091
• 发表日期: 2018
• 页码: 142
• 关键词: business groups; economic-performance; credit; trust; GROWTH; institutions; countries; origins; WORLD; culture

摘要

Access to finance helps explain the link between the historical African slave trade and current gross domestic product. We first present mistrust, weakened institutions, and ethnic fractionalization as plausible historical channels linking the slave trade to modern finance and development. We then show (i) the slave trade is consistently linked to reduced access to the formal and trade credit needed by modern firms, (ii) this shortage particularly reduces capital investment in smaller firms not in business groups, and (iii) the slave trade cannot explain most other business obstacles, suggesting that long-term societal shocks are exceptionally important for finance.