Diamonds are forever long-run effects of mining institutions in Brazil

• Ano de defesa: 2016
• Autor(a) principal: Carvalho, Marcelo Sacchi de
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: eng
• Instituição de defesa: Biblioteca Digitais de Teses e Dissertações da USP
• Palavras-chave em Português: Brasil colônia; Canais de persistência; Channels of persistence; Colonial Brazil; Desenvolvimento; Desenvolvimento econômico; Development; Economia política; Instituições; Institutions
• Link de acesso: http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/12/12138/tde-07102016-163813/

This paper uses a regression discontinuity approach to investigate whether a set of colonial policies adopted in the Diamond District have long-run impacts on development. Results show that the treatment effect is positive on household income, adult literacy and light density from satellite images. I also explore potential channels through which this historical event might be leading to these positive outcomes. I use contemporary census data to show that treated areas have higher urbanization rates. I also present evidence from 1872 and 1890 census data that areas inside the District have persistently higher human capital levels. Using a geospatial road location database and vector data constructed from historical maps, I find that observations inside the District\'s historical boundaries used to have less dense road networks but this is not true today. Additionally I use data from the 1830s and from the 1872 census to show that slavery was more intense in treated villages but after the decline of diamond extraction this difference vanished