Economic Development in the Americas since 1500
Endowments and Institutions

Examines differences in the rates of economic growth in Latin America and mainland North America since the seventeenth century.

Stanley L. Engerman (Author), Kenneth L. Sokoloff (Author), Stephen Haber (Contributions by), Elisa V. Mariscal (Contributions by), Eric M. Zolt (Contributions by)

9780521251372, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 14 November 2011

444 pages, 4 b/w illus. 60 tables
22.8 x 15.2 x 2 cm, 0.61 kg

'The work of Engerman and Sokoloff is foundational to the literature on colonialism, institutions, and economic development and anyone interested in development or new institutional economics will need to read this book.' Tomas Nonnenmacher, EH.net

This book brings together a number of previously published articles by Stanley L. Engerman and Kenneth L. Sokoloff. Its essays deal with differences in the rates of economic growth in Latin American and mainland North America, specifically the United States and Canada. It demonstrates how relative differences in growth over time are related to differences in the institutions that developed in different economies. This variation is driven by differences in major institutions – suffrage, education, tax policy, land and immigration policy, and banking and financial organizations. These factors, in turn, are all related to differences in endowments, climate and natural resources. Providing a comprehensive treatment of its topic, the essays have been revised to reflect new developments and research.

Beginnings: memoirs by two of Ken Sokoloff's friends and teachers Claudia Goldin and Stanley L. Engerman
Acknowledgments
Seminar presentations
Sources of funding
List of tables
List of figures
Introduction
1. Paths of development: an overview
2. Factor endowments and institutions with Stephen Haber
3. The role of institutions in shaping factor
4. The evolution of suffrage institutions
5. The evolution of schooling: 1800–1925 with Elisa V. Mariscal
6. Inequality and the evolution of taxation Kenneth L. Sokoloff and Eric M. Zolt
7. Land and immigration policies
8. Politics and banking systems Stephen Haber
9. Five hundred years of European colonization
10. Institutional and non-institutional explanations
11 Epilogue: institutions in political and economic development
Bibliography
Prior publications.

Subject Areas: Economic history [KCZ], History of the Americas [HBJK]