Purpose

This paper explores the role of colonial heritage on long-term economic development from a resource-curse perspective. The authors investigate the impact of colonial exports on long-term economic development through two channels: (1) a direct impact of the economic dependency on natural resources and (2) an indirect impact via its effect on colonial institutions, which persisted over time and influenced current economic development.

Design/methodology/approach

To address this issue, the authors use an original data set on French bilateral trade from 1880 to 1912. The authors use partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) in the empirical analysis, so that the authors are able to construct latent variables (LVs) for variables that are not directly observable, such as the quality of institutions.

Findings

The authors find that exports of primary goods to France had a negative impact on colonial institutions and that for French colonies, this impact was driven by minerals exports. Despite its impact on colonial institutions, exports of French colonies had no significant indirect impact on their current institutions. The authors find no significant direct impact of colonial trade on current development for French colonies. Finally, colonial exports of manufactured products had no significant impact on colonial institutions among French colonies and a positive impact among non-French ones.

Research limitations/implications

Research implications regarding the findings of this paper are, namely, that the relative poor performance within French colonies today cannot be attributed to the extraction of raw materials a century ago. However, human capital and institutional development, instead of exports, are more relatively important for long-term growth. Some limitations in trying to determine the simultaneous relationship among colonial trade, institutions and economic performance are the relation between colonial trade and the extent of extraction from the colonizer, which is hard to quantify, as well as its precise mechanism.

Practical implications

Since the initial institutions set in those former colonies presented a strong persistence in the long run, their governments should focus now on building sound and inclusive political and economic institutions, as well as on investing in human capital in order to foster long-term growth. Once a comprehensive set of institutional and human resources are put in place, the quality and quantity of exports might create a positive spillover on the short-run growth.

Social implications

One social implication that can be retrieved from this study is the ever-lasting effect of both human capital investment and introduction of inclusive political and economic institutions on the long-run impact of growth.

Originality/value

The paper uses an original primary data set from archival sources to explore the role of colonial heritage on long-term economic development from a resource-curse perspective. It applies a relatively new model partial least squares path modeling (PLS-PM) that allows the construction of LVs for variables that are not directly observable, as well as channeling the impact on growth through both direct and indirect channels. Finally, it allows for the simultaneous multigroup analysis across different colonial groups.

中文翻译：

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殖民地出口模式、制度和当前经济表现

目的

本文从资源诅咒的角度探讨殖民遗产对长期经济发展的作用。作者通过两个渠道调查了殖民出口对长期经济发展的影响：(1) 经济依赖自然资源的直接影响和 (2) 通过其对殖民制度的影响而产生的间接影响，这种影响随着时间的推移而持续存在。影响了当前的经济发展。

设计/方法/方法

为了解决这个问题，作者使用了 1880 年至 1912 年法国双边贸易的原始数据集。作者在实证分析中使用了偏最小二乘结构方程模型 (PLS-SEM)，以便作者能够构建潜在变量(LV) 用于不可直接观察的变量，例如机构的质量。

发现

作者发现，向法国出口初级商品对殖民地制度产生了负面影响，而对于法国殖民地而言，这种影响是由矿产出口驱动的。尽管对殖民制度有影响，但法国殖民地的出口对其现有制度没有重大的间接影响。作者发现殖民贸易对法国殖民地当前的发展没有显着的直接影响。最后，殖民地制成品的出口对法国殖民地的殖民制度没有显着影响，而对非法国殖民地产生积极影响。

研究限制/影响

与本文结果相关的研究意义在于，今天法国殖民地的相对较差的表现不能归因于一个世纪前的原材料提取。然而，人力资本和制度发展，而不是出口，对长期增长来说更为重要。试图确定殖民贸易、制度和经济绩效之间的同步关系的一些局限性是殖民贸易与从殖民者身上榨取的程度之间的关系，难以量化，以及其精确机制。

实际影响

由于在这些前殖民地建立的最初机构从长远来看具有很强的持久性，因此他们的政府现在应该专注于建立健全和包容的政治和经济机构，以及投资于人力资本以促进长期增长。一旦一套全面的制度和人力资源到位，出口的质量和数量可能会对短期增长产生积极的溢出效应。

社会影响

从这项研究中可以得出的一个社会影响是人力资本投资和引入包容性政治和经济制度对增长的长期影响的持久影响。

原创性/价值

本文使用来自档案来源的原始原始数据集，从资源诅咒的角度探讨殖民遗产对长期经济发展的作用。它应用了一种相对较新的模型偏最小二乘路径建模 (PLS-PM)，该模型允许为不可直接观察的变量构建 LV，并通过直接和间接渠道引导对增长的影响。最后，它允许跨不同殖民地群体同时进行多群体分析。