Resource information
Using subnational historical data, this
paper establishes the within country persistence of economic
activity in the New World over the last half millennium. The
paper constructs a data set incorporating measures of
pre-colonial population density, new measures of present
regional per capita income and population, and a
comprehensive set of locational fundamentals. These
fundamentals are shown to have explanatory power: native
populations throughout the hemisphere were found in more
livable and productive places. It is then shown that high
pre-colonial density areas tend to be dense today:
population agglomerations persist. The data and historical
evidence suggest this is due partly to locational
fundamentals, but also to classic agglomeration effects:
colonialists established settlements near existing native
populations for reasons of labor, trade, knowledge and
defense. Further, high density (historically prosperous)
areas also tend to have higher incomes today, and largely
due to agglomeration effects: fortune persists for the
United States and most of Latin America. Finally extractive
institutions, in this case, slavery, reduce persistence
even if they do not overwhelm other forces in its favor.
