The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation: Comment

摘要

Given the paucity of instrumental variables in the cross-country growth literature, it is regrettable that the AJR mortality series suffers from severe measurement problems. While broad regions like West Africa and the Caribbean were clearly unhealthy for Europeans, the mortality differences in the series between neighboring countries are largely unreliable. Much of the variation in the mortality data is due to questionable mortality assignments, which often reflect transitory fluctuations or living conditions, rather than actual permanent differences among these countries.