Why do some nations experience stronger economic growth than others? This question has tormented economists – and not only them – since the beginning of this science, if only its founding father, Adam Smith, with his famous inaugural work. Investigation into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations. (1776).
Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James Robinson received the 2024 Bank of Sweden Jury Prize in honor of Alfred Nobel (known as the Nobel Prize in Economics) for providing their own answer to this question twenty-three years ago, in an article that has been become one of the most cited in all economic literature: The colonial origins of comparative development (American Economic Review n°91, 2001).
The three authors – who, although the first was of Turkish and American nationality, the other two were of British origin, all three developed their entire careers in the United States – compared the mortality tables of white settlers in different colonies with current growth rates. . of the States resulting from these colonies. “They concluded that where settlers had been able to populate important territories thanks to a less severe sanitary environment, they had been able to create institutions capable of guaranteeing rights – particularly property rights – and stimulating technical and economic progress. While when this environment was unhealthy, they were content to enslave local labor or import it to exploit local resources, agricultural or mining, in order to extract rent. », Explains Philippe Aghion, professor at the Collège de France.
But in other cases, the same authors show it in an article published the following year, particularly about the southern United States in the mid-19th century.my century (Change of fortune, Quarterly economics magazine n°117, 2002), the institutions that had ensured development became a liability when the economic environment changed, such as the plantation economy in the face of the industrial revolution.
Take into account institutional realities
The authors later applied this approach to other areas. Daron Acemoglu, in particular, showed how technological innovation can become the income of a dominant elite or put at the service of the majority, depending on the nature of the existing institutions. Simon Johnson used the same framework to analyze the capture of the American financial system by a narrow banking elite and the financial crises that this engendered.
You have 50.64% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
