Colonialism and Industrialization: Empirical Results

Alam, M. Shahid (1998): Colonialism and Industrialization: Empirical Results.

Abstract

This paper presents theory and evidence to show that imperialism was a major factor impeding the spread of the industrial revolution during the century ending in the 1950s. Two empirical results stand out. First, analysis of historical evidence shows that most sovereign countries were implementing active industrial policies during the nineteenth century, while policies in dependent countries were biased in the opposite direction. Second, when allowance is made for economic determinants, industrialization in dependent countries in 1960 is found to be significantly lower than in sovereign countries. This result is shown to be quite robust to changes in data, sample size, functional forms, and specifications of the estimating equations. In particular, the basic results are not affected by the inclusion of a dummy for Sub-Saharan Africa.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Colonialism, Industrialization, Imperialism, Sovereignty, Colony, Open Door Countries, Arthur Lewis, David Landes, Britain, Africa, Asia, Latin America, India, Neo-Marxism, Karl Marx, Dependency Theory, Culture, Climate, Race, Religion, Protection, Free Trade, Friedrich List, Industry, Economies of Scale, External Economies
• Subjects: N - Economic History > N1 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics ; Industrial Structure ; Growth ; Fluctuations > N10 - General, International, or Comparative; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O2 - Development Planning and Policy > O24 - Trade Policy ; Factor Movement Policy ; Foreign Exchange Policy; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O1 - Economic Development > O14 - Industrialization ; Manufacturing and Service Industries ; Choice of Technology

References

Alam, M. S., Colonialism, decolonization and growth rates: Theory and empirical evidence, Cambridge Journal of Economics 18 (June 1994): 235-257.

Amsden, Alice, Asia's next giant (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989).

Bairoch, Paul, Economics and world history (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993).

Bairoch, Paul, "International industrialization levels from 1750 to 1980," Journal of European Economic History 11, 2 (Spring 1982): 269-333.

Bairoch, Paul, The working population and its structure: International historical statistics, vol. 1 (Brussels: University Libre de Brussels, 1968).

Batou, Jean, "Muhammad-'Ali's Egypt, 1805-1848: A command economy in the nineteenth century," in: Between development and underdevelopment (Geneva: Libraire Droz, 1991).

Boeke, J. H., Economics and economic policy of dual societies (New York: Institute of Pacific Relations, 1953).

Brett, E. A., Colonialism and underdevelopment in East Africa (London: Heinemann, 1973).

Cariola, Carmen and Osvaldo Sunkel, "The growth of nitrate industry and socioeconomic change in Chile, 1880-1930," in:

Roberto Cortes Condo and Shane J. Hunt, The Latin American economies: Growth and the export sector, 1880-1930 (New York: Holmes and Meier, 1985).

Chaudhuri, K. N., '"Foreign trade and balance of payments (1757-1947)," in: Dharma Kumar, ed., The Cambridge economic history of India, v.2 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983).

Chenery, Hollis B. and Moises Syrquin, Patterns of development (London: Oxford University Press, 1975).

Clark, Gregory, "Why isn't the whole world developed? Lessons from the Cotton mills," Journal of Economic History 47', 1 (March 1987): 141-173.

Crouchley, Arthur E., The economic development of modern Egypt (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1938).

Easterlin, Richard, "Why isn't the whole world developed?" The Journal of Economic History 41, 1 (March 1981): 1-19.

Fieldhduse, D. K., Colonialism, 1860-1945: An introduction (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1981).

Gerschenkron, Alexander, Economic backwardness in historical perspective (Cambridge, M.A.: Harvard University Press, 1962).

Golay, Frank H., "Southeast Asia: The 'colonial drain' revisited," in: C. D. Cowan and O. W. Walters, eds., Southeast Asian history and historiography (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1976).

Griffin, Keith and John Gurley, "Radical analyses of imperialism, the Third World and the transition to socialism: A survey," Journal of Economic Literature 23 (September 1985): 1087-1143.

Issawi, Charles, An economic history of the Middle East and North Africa (New York: Columbia University Press, 1982).

Issawi, Charles, "Egypt since 1800: A study in lop-sided development," Journal of Economic History 21, 1 (March 1961): 1-25.

Jalal, Ferhang, The role of government in the industrialization of Iraq (London: Frank Cass, 1972).

Kenwood, A. G. and A. L. Lougheed, The growth of the international economy, 1820-1960 (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1971).

Kilby, Peter, "Manufacturing in colonial Africa," in: Peter Duignan and L. H. Gann, eds., Colonialism in Africa: 1860-1960 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975).

Levine, Ross and David Renelt, "A sensitivity analysis of cross-country growth regressions," American Economic Review 82, 4 (September 1992): 942-63.

Lewis, W. A., The evolution of the international economic order (Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press, 1977).

Lewis, W. A., Growth and fluctuations: 1860-1913 (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1978).

Maddison, Angus, "The colonial burden: A comparative perspective," in: Maurice Scott, ed., Public policy and economic development (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990).

Maddison, Angus, Two crises: Latin America and Asia, 1929-38 and 1973-83 (Paris: OECD Development Centre, 1985).

Mathew, W. M., "The imperialism of free trade," Economic History Review 21, 3 (December 1968): 562-579.

McGreevey, William P., "The transition to economic growth in Colombia," in: Roberto Cortes Conde and Shane J. Hunt, eds., The Latin American economies: Growth and the export sector, 1880-1930 (New York: Holmes and Meier, 1985).

Morris, Cynthia Taft and Irma Adelman, Comparative patterns of economic development (Baltimore, N.J.: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1988).

Mulhall, Michael G., The dictionary of statistics (London: George Routledge and Sons, 1892).

O'Connor, James, "The meaning of imperialism," in: Robert I. Rhodes, ed., Imperialism and underdevelopment: A reader (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1970).

Owen, Roger, The Middle East in the world economy, 1800-1914 (London: Methuen, 1981).

Palma, Gabriel, "Dependency: A formal theory of underdevelopment or a methodology for the analysis of concrete situations of underdevelopment," World Development, 6 (1978): 881-924.

Peemans, Jean-Philippe, "Capital accumulation in the Congo under colonialism: The role of the state," in: Peter Duignan and L. H. Gann, eds., Colonialism in Africa: 1860-1960 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975).

Potash, Robert A., Mexican government and industrial development in the early republic (Amherst, M. A.: University of Massachusetts Press, 1983).

Stein, Stanley J., The Brazilian cotton manufacture: Textile enterprise in an underdeveloped area, 1850-1950 (Cambridge, MA.: Harvard University Press, 1957).

Summers, Robert and Alan Heston, "The Perm World Table (Mark 5): An expanded set of international comparisons, 1950-88," The Quarterly Journal of Economics 106 (1991): 327-368, and accompanying diskettes.

Summers, Robert, Alan Heston, Daniel A. Nuxoll and Bettina Aten, Perm World Table (Mark 5.5) (Boston: National Bureau of Economic Research, June 1993).

Taylor, Charles Lewis and Michael C. Hudson, World handbook of political and social indicators (New Haven, CT.: Yale University Press, 1972).

Trebilcock, Clive, The industrialization of the Continental powers, 1780-1914 (London: Longman, 1981).

Yudelman, Montague, "Imperialism and the transfer of agriculture techniques," in: Peter Duignan and L. H. Gann, eds., Colonialism in Africa: 1860-1960 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,1975).

Wade, Robert, Governing the market (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1990).

World Bank, World Development Report (Washington: World Bank, 1980). World Bank, World Development Report (Washington: World Bank, 1993).