Slavery, Political Competition, and Economic Development

• In Event: Political Development in the 19th Century U.S. South

Brief Overview

Using historical Census and election data, we find that political competition accelerates economic development in the southern counties with low proportion of slave populations, but not places that had high proportion of slave populations.

Authors

• Byengseon Bae, Claremont Graduate University

• Melissa Ziegler Rogers, Claremont Graduate University