Download This PaperThe African Slave Trade and Modern Household Finance
Economic Journal, Conditional Acceptance
44 Pages Posted: 8 Sep 2017 Last revised: 3 Oct 2019
Date Written: September 17, 2019
Abstract
We evaluate the impact of the African slave trade between 1400 and 1900 on modern household finance. Exploiting cross-country and cross-ethnic group differences in the intensity with which people were enslaved and exported from Africa, we find that slave exports during the 1400-1900 period are negatively associated with current measures of household (a) access to financial services, (b) access to credit, (c) use of mobile finance, and (d) trust in financial institutions, suggesting that the slave trade has had an enduring, deleterious effect on household finance.
Keywords: Financial Institutions; Household Finance; History and Finance
JEL Classification: G21, N2, O16, O55
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Ross Eric Levine (Contact Author)
University of California, Berkeley - Haas School of Business ( email )
545 Student Services Building, #1900
2220 Piedmont Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94720
United States