Sequential Sales As a Test of Adverse Selection in the Market for Slaves

We propose an alternative test for adverse selection using notarial records for slaves sold in New Orleans in 1830. The experiment is simple and mimics the used car example originally proposed by Akerlof (1970). When first sold in New Orleans, buyers of imported slaves were uninformed of the slaves' unobservable characteristics. In time, the new owners learned more about their slaves and the "lemons" were sold and the "peaches" retained. Because buyers anticipate that the slaves offered for sale were of lower quality on average, they reduce their bids for these slaves. Consequently, we should observe a lower price for the slaves who were resold in the market. We test this proposition by linking the sequential sales records of 833 slaves sold in New Orleans. Through a comparison of initial and resale prices, we find that prices increased which suggests that adverse selection had a relatively small effect on the prices of slaves.slavery, human capital

The Occupations of Slaves Sold in New Orleans: Missing Values, Cheap Talk, or Informative Advertising

Although plantation records indicate that many slaves in the southern United States were artisans and craftsmen, relatively few slaves were recorded as such on the New Orleans sales invoices. Robert Fogel (1989, p.57, 162) assumes that the slaves without recorded occupations were unskilled workers,concluding that skilled slaves were "less than half as likely to have been sold as were ordinary field hands." Using data from New Orleans newspapers, we find that most sales advertisements include information about the slave's skill or occupation. A comparison of the advertisement with the corresponding invoice shows that the slave's occupation was often omitted from the sales invoice. Because the slave's market price should reflect all relevant information available at the time of sale, the informational value of the slave's advertised occupation can be estimated using regression analysis. Interestingly, we find that the qualitative description of the slave's skill level affected his market price more than his advertised occupation. For example, an "excellent" cook commanded a premium price whereas a "plain" or "tolerable" cook did not. These results suggest that buyers used available information in making their bids and that newspaper advertisements were not simply "cheap talk."slavery, human capital

Does participation improve project performance : establishing causality with subjective data

Development practitioners are coming to a consensus that participation by the intended beneficiaries improves project performance. But is there convincing evidence that this is true? Skeptics have three objections: 1)"Participation is not objective -- project rankings are subjective; 2) this subjectivity leads to"halo effects"; 3) better project performance may have increased beneficiary participation rather than the other way around -- a statistical association is not proof of cause and effect. The authors show methodologically how to answer each of these objections. Subjectivity does not preclude reliable cardinal measurement. Halo effects do not appear to induce a strong upward bias in estimating the effect of participation. Finally, instrumental variables estimation can help establish a structural cause and effect relationship between participation and project performance -- at least in the rural water supply projects they studied.Governance Indicators,ICT Policy and Strategies,Health Economics&Finance,Statistical&Mathematical Sciences,Poverty Monitoring&Analysis

The In-Hospital Mortality Rates of Slaves and Freemen: Evidence from Touro Infirmary, New Orleans, Louisiana, 1855–1860

Using a rich sample of admission records from New Orleans Touro Infirmary, we examine the in-hospital mortality risk of free and enslaved patients. Despite a higher mortality rate in the general population, slaves were significantly less likely to die in the hospital than the whites. We analyze the determinants of in-hospital mortality at Touro using Oaxaca-type decomposition to aggregate our regression results. After controlling for differences in characteristics and maladies, we find that much of the mortality gap remains unexplained. In conclusion, we propose an alternative explanation for the mortality gap based on the selective hospital admission of slaves.hospital, slavery, Oaxaca-type decomposition, New Orleans, Touro

Governance and returns on investment : an empirical investigation

Using data from the World Bank's Operations Evaluation Department, the authors examine the link between the performance of Bank-financed projects and various indicators of country governance. They find that: there is a strong statistical, and possibly casual, link between civil liberties and project performance. After controlling for a variety of determinants of project performance, they find that in countries with the best civil liberties records projects have an economic rate of return between 8 and 22 percentage points higher than the rate of return in countries with the worst civil liberties. (The average rate of return in the sample is 6 percent). The typical political regime (whether authoritarian or democratic) and the status of more purely political liberties do not appear to significantly affect project performance.Human Rights,Decentralization,Politics and Government,Public Health Promotion,ICT Policy and Strategies,Governance Indicators,National Governance,Politics and Government,Economic Policy, Institutions and Governance,Human Rights

Microwave Induced Optical Nonlinearities in Cuprous Oxide

This thesis presents an experimental study of the transmission spectrum of cuprous oxide in the presence of a microwave field. Using one photon spectroscopy an excitonic population is created which can then be modified by the application of a microwave field. This was achieved using a combination of microwave antennae and high-resolution spectroscopy. The main results presented in this thesis are: (1) Using photoluminescence and transmission spectroscopy the quality of natural and synthetic samples was measured, finding natural samples to be far superior. This was attributed to the presence of copper vacancies in the synthetic material. These vacancies were removed through thermal annealing, but this did not improve the quality of synthetic samples. (2) Determination of temperature as the limiting factor to observe higher nP states. This was carried out through spectroscopy of cuprous oxide over a range of temperatures. (3) Observation of large optical nonlinearities in the presence of a microwave field. These manifest as changes in absorption which is stronger for higher $n$ states, where for sufficiently strong fields it is no longer possible to resolve them. An additional impact of the microwave field is an increase in the absorption between states. These observations were modelled by treating excitons as spinless hydrogen enabling an extraction of the nonlinear susceptibility using an atomic physics approach. The change in absorption is well described by this model. Alongside this, a large cross-Kerr nonlinearity is estimated which is several orders of magnitude larger than that seen in conventional media. These results cement cuprous oxide as a viable platform for Rydberg physics wherein strong coupling to external fields can be detected. This also highlights the need to develop high-quality synthetic material to remove the reliance on naturally occurring samples

The Varieties of Resource Experience: How Natural Resource Export Structures Affect the Political Economy of Economic Growth

Many oil, mineral, and plantation crop-based economies experienced a substantial deceleration of growth since the commodity boom and bust of the 1970s and early 1980s. Rodrik (1999) has demonstrated that the magnitude of a country's growth deceleration since the 1970s is a function of both the magnitude of the shocks and a country's "social capability" for adapting to shocks. In this paper, we demonstrate that in this respect countries, with what we term "point source" natural resource exports are doubly disadvantaged. Not only are countries with these types of exports exposed to terms of trade shocks, but the institutional capability for responding to shocks is itself endogenous and negatively related to export composition. Using two different sources of export data and classifications of export composition, we show that point source and coffee/cocoa exporting countries do worse across an array of governance indicators (controlling for a wide array of other potential determinants of governance). This is not just a function of being a "natural resource" exporter, as countries with natural resource exports that are "diffuse" do not show the same strong differences-and have had more robust growth recoveries.economic growth, institutions, natural resource endowment

The Varieties of Resource Experience: How Natural Resource Export Structures Affect the Political Economy of Economic Growth

Many oil, mineral, and plantation crop-based economies experienced a substantial deceleration of growth since the commodity boom and bust of the 1970s and early 1980s. Rodrik (1999) has demonstrated that the magnitude of a country’s growth deceleration since the 1970s is a function of both the magnitude of the shocks and a country’s “social capability” for adapting to shocks. In this paper, we demonstrate that in this respect countries, with what we term “point source” natural resource exports are doubly disadvantaged. Not only are countries with these types of exports exposed to terms of trade shocks, but the institutional capability for responding to shocks is itself endogenous and negatively related to export composition. Using two different sources of export data and classifications of export composition, we show that point source and coffee/cocoa exporting countries do worse across an array of governance indicators (controlling for a wide array of other potential determinants of governance). This is not just a function of being a “natural resource” exporter, as countries with natural resource exports that are “diffuse” do not show the same strong differences—and have had more robust growth recoveries.economic growth, institutions, natural resource endowment

The in-hospital mortality rates of slaves and freemen: evidence from Touro infirmary, New Orleans, Louisiana, 1855 - 1860

Using a rich sample of admission records from New Orleans Touro Infirmary, we examine the in-hospital mortality risk of free and enslaved patients. Despite a higher mortality rate in the general population, slaves were significantly less likely to die in the hospital than the whites. We analyze the determinants of in-hospital mortality at Touro using Oaxaca-type decomposition to aggregate our regression results. After controlling for differences in characteristics and maladies, we find that much of the mortality gap remains unexplained. In conclusion, we propose an alternative explanation for the mortality gap based on the selective hospital admission of slaves

Preserving Slave Families for Profit: Traders' Incentives and Pricing in the New Orleans Slave Market

We investigate the determinants of slave family discounts, using data from the New Orleans slave market. We find large price discounts for families which cannot be explained by scale effects, childcare costs, legal restrictions, or transport costs. Because family members cared for each other, sellers found it advantageous to keep some families together. Evidence from the manifests of ships carrying slaves to be sold in New Orleans provides direct evidence for our model of selectivity bias in explaining slave family discounts. Children likely to have been shipped with their mothers are 1-2 inches shorter than other children.