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

被引：84

作者：

Frankema, Ewout ^{[1
]}

van Waijenburg, Marlous ^{[2
]}

机构：

[1] Wageningen Univ, NL-6706 KN Wageningen, Netherlands

[2] Northwestern Univ, Dept Hist, Evanston, IL 60208 USA

来源：

JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC HISTORY | 2012年 / 72卷 / 04期

关键词：

GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE; GREAT DIVERGENCE; LIVING STANDARDS; LATIN-AMERICA; INEQUALITY; PRICES; EUROPE; GEOGRAPHY; REVENUE; GHANA;

D O I：

10.1017/S0022050712000630

中图分类号：

F [经济];

学科分类号：

02 ;

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.

引用

页码：895 / 926

页数：32