Although development economics generally confines its attention to the last 60 years, there is a growing body of research that looks back centuries and tries to determine if the events in the long past are responsible for underdevelopment of today’s developing countries. Broadly speaking, there are two views on the long-term determinants of comparative development. One view is that the extractive institutions created during colonization between 1500 and 1900 are responsible for underdevelopment we see today. The other view is that these institutions were created because of particular geographical factors, and the role of geography is played out on a much longer time scale. This article provides a brief survey of the two alternative perspectives on development economics.
AcemogluD.RobinsonJ. A. (2006). Economic origins of dictatorship and democracy. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
2.
AcemogluD.JohnsonS.RobinsonJ. A. (2001). Colonial origins of comparative development: An empirical investigation. The American Economic Review, 91(5), 1369–1401.
3.
AcemogluD.JohnsonS.RobinsonJ. A. (2002). Reversal of fortune: Geography and institutions in the making of the modern world income distribution. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 117(4), 1231–1294.
4.
AcemogluD.JohnsonS.RobinsonJ. A. (2005). The rise of Europe: Atlantic trade, institutional change, and economic growth. The American Economic Review, 95(3), 546–579.
5.
BanerjeeA. V.DufloE. (2011). Poor Economics. Noida, UP: Random House Publishers India.
6.
BanerjeeA. V.IyerL. (2005). History, institutions, and economic performance: The legacy of colonial land tenure systems in India. The American Economic Review, 95(4), 1190–1213.
7.
BanerjeeA. V.IyerL.SomanathanR. (2005). History, social divisions and public goods in rural India. Journal of the European Economic Association, 3(2–3), 639–647.
8.
BesleyT. (1995). Property rights and investment incentives: Theory and evidence from Ghana. The Journal of Political Economy, 103(5), 903–937.
9.
BloomDavid E.SachsJeffrey D. (1998). Geography, demography, and economic growth in Africa. Brookings Papers on Economic Activity 2, USA: Brookings Institution.
10.
CliftonE. V.Romero-BarrutietaA. (2006). Institutions versus geography: Subnational evidence from the United States. IMF Working Paper WP/06/169. IMF, Washington DC.
11.
DiamondJ. M. (1997). Guns, germs and steel: The fate of human societies. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Co.
12.
EasterlyW. (2007). Inequality does cause underdevelopment: Insights from a new instrument. Journal of Development Economics, 84(2), 755–776.
13.
EngermanS. L.SokoloffK. L. (2005). The evolution of suffrage institutions in the Americas. Journal of Economic History, 65(4), 891–921.
14.
GallupJ.L.SachsJ. D.MellingerA. D. (1999). Geography and economic development. In PleskovicB.StiglitzJ. E. (Eds), World bank annual conference on development economics 1998 (pp. 127–178). Washington, DC: World Bank.
15.
GallupJ. L.SachsJ. D. (2001). The economic burden of malaria. American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 64(1–2), 85–96.
16.
HallR. E.JonesC. L. (1999). Why do some countries produce so much more output per worker than others?Quarterly Journal of Economics, 114(1), 83–116.
17.
KremerM. (1993). Population growth and technological change: One million B. C. to 1990. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 108(3), 681–716.
18.
McArthurJohn W.SachsJeffery D. (2001). Institutions and geography: Comment on Acemoglu, Johnson and Robinson (2000). NBER Working Paper 8114, NBER, USA. Retrieved from www.nber.org/papers/w8114. Accessed on 8 December 2013.
19.
MyrdalG. (1968). Asian Drama: An Inquiry into the Poverty of Nations. New York, NY: Pantheon.
20.
NorthD. C. (1990). Institutions, institutional change, and economic performance. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
21.
NorthD. C.ThomasR. P. (1973). The rise of the Western world: A new economic history. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
22.
OlssonO.Hibbs, Jr.D.A. (2005). Biogeography and long-run economic development. European Economic Review, 49(4), 909–938.
23.
OlssonO.PaikC. (2013). A Western reversal since the neolithic? The long-run impact of early agriculture. University of Gothenburg Working Paper. Retrieved from http://www.economics.handels.gu.se/english/staff/professors/ola_olsson/. Accessed on 1 November 2013.
24.
PrzeworskiAdam. (2004). Geography vs. institutions revisited: Were fortunes reversed?Department of Politics Working Paper. New York University.
25.
RodrikD.SubramanianA.TrebbiF. (2004). Institutions rule: The primacy of institutions over geography and integration in economic development. Journal of Economic Growth, 9(2), 131–165.
26.
RoyT. (2000). The Economic History of India, 1857–1947. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
27.
SachsJeffrey D. (2001). Tropical Underdevelopment. NBER Working Paper No. 8119. National Bureau of Economic Research, USA.
28.
SachsJeffrey D. (2003) Institutions don’t rule: Direct effects of geography on per capita income. NBER Working Paper Working Paper 9490, NBER, USA. Retrieved from http://www.nber.org/papers/w9490. Accessed on 8 December 2013.
29.
SokoloffK. L.EngermanS. L. (Summer2000). History lessions: Institutions, factor endowments and paths of development in the new world. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 14(3), 217–232.
