We investigate the demographic effects of forced labor under an extractive colonial regime: the Cultivation System in nineteenth-century Java. Our panel analyses show that labor demands are strongly positively associated with mortality rates, likely resulting from malnourishment and unhygienic conditions on plantations and the spread of infectious diseases. An instrumental variable approach, using international market prices for coffee and sugar for predicting labor demands, addresses potential endogeneity concerns. Our estimates suggest that without the abolition of the Cultivation System average overall mortality in Java would have been between 10 and 30 percent higher by the late 1870s.

中文翻译：

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殖民主义的人口影响：爪哇的强迫劳动和死亡率，1834-1879

我们调查了榨取式殖民政权下强迫劳动对人口的影响：19 世纪爪哇的耕作制度。我们的小组分析表明，劳动力需求与死亡率密切相关，这可能是由于种植园的营养不良和不卫生条件以及传染病的传播造成的。一种工具变量方法，使用咖啡和糖的国际市场价格来预测劳动力需求，解决了潜在的内生性问题。我们的估计表明，如果不废除耕作系统，到 1870 年代后期，爪哇的平均总死亡率将高出 10% 到 30%。