PARTICIPANTS
Hoyt Bleakley, John Taylor, John Cochrane, Valerie Ramey, Robert Barro, Pedro Carvalho, Jared Franz, Vincent Geloso, Jerome Greco, Anthony Gregory, Paul Gregory, Bob Hall, Robert Hodrick, Ken Judd, Dan Kessler, David Laidler, Nelson Layfield, Ross Levine, John Li, Stephen Redding, Paola Sapienza, Krishna Sharma, Richard Sousa, Jack Tatom, Gavin Wright, Philip Zelikow, Alexander Zentefis
ISSUES DISCUSSED
Hoyt Bleakley, W. Glenn Campbell and Rita Ricardo-Campbell National Fellow at the Hoover Institution, and professor of economics at the University of Michigan, discussed “The Economic Effects of American Slavery: Tests at the Border,” a paper with Paul Rhode (University of Michigan).
John Taylor, the Mary and Robert Raymond Professor of Economics at Stanford University and the George P. Shultz Senior Fellow in Economics at the Hoover Institution, was the moderator.
SUMMARY
To engage with the large literature on the economic effects of slavery, we use antebellum census data to test for statistical differences at the 1860 free-slave border. We find evidence of lower population density, less intensive land use, and lower farm values on the slave side. Half of the border region was half underutilized. This does not support the view that abolition was a costly constraint for landowners. Indeed, the lower demand for similar, yet cheaper, land presents a different puzzle: why wouldn't the yeomen farmers cross the border to fill up empty land in slave states, as was happening in the free states of the Old Northwest? On this point, we find evidence of higher wages on the slave side, indicating an aversion of free labor to working in a slave society. This evidence of systemically lower economic performance in slavery-legal areas suggests that the earlier literature on the profitability of plantations was misplaced, or at least incomplete.
To read the paper, click here
To view the slides, click here
WATCH THE SEMINAR
Topic: The Economic Effects of American Slavery: Tests at the Border
Start Time: May 14, 2025, 12:00 PM PT
