Discussion paper

DP11620 The Legacies of Slavery in and out of Africa

The slave trades out of Africa represent one of the most significant forced migration experiences in history. In this paper I illustrate their long-term consequences on contemporaneous socio-economic outcomes, drawing from my own previous work on the topic and from an extensive review of the available literature. I first consider the influence of the slave trade on the “sending” countries in Africa, with attention to their economic, institutional, demographic, and social implications. Next I evaluate the consequences of the slave trade on the “receiving” countries in the Americas. Here I distinguish between the case of Latin America and that of the United States. Overall, I show that the slave trades exert a lasting impact along several contemporaneous socio-economic dimensions and across diverse areas of the world.

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Citation

Bertocchi, G (2016), ‘DP11620 The Legacies of Slavery in and out of Africa‘, CEPR Discussion Paper No. 11620. CEPR Press, Paris & London. https://cepr.org/publications/dp11620