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Bank of Finland, Rauhankatu 19 B, Helsinki
Steven Nafziger (Williams College): The Slow Road from Serfdom: Labor Coercion and Long-Run Development in the Former Russian Empire
Abstract
This paper examines the long-run economic consequences of Russian serfdom. Using novel data measuring the intensity of labor coercion at the district level in 1861, we find that a greater legacy of serfdom is associated with lower economic well-being today. This result is robust to taking into account a large set of correlates of serfdom, as well as an instrumental variable strategy. The analysis of different types of labor coercion reveals substantial heterogeneity in the long-run effects of serfdom. Furthermore, we document the persistence of economic development as measured by city populations over the period 1800 - 2002 in cross-sectional and panel regressions. Exploring mechanisms, our results suggest that the effect of serfdom on urbanization in Imperial Russia was perpetuated in the Soviet period, with negative implications for structural change, the spatial distribution of firms, and human capital investment.
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Seminars take place, as a rule, on Tuesdays, starting at 10.30 a.m. Visitors are escorted to the seminar room from the Rauhankatu 19 B (Library) entrance.