Nunn, Nathan2010-03-022008Nunn, Nathan. 2008. The long-term effects of Africa's slave trades. Quarterly Journal of Economics 123(1): 139-176.0033-5533http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:3710252Can part of Africa's current underdevelopment be explained by its slave trades? To explore this question, I use data from shipping records and historical documents reporting slave ethnicities to construct estimates of the number of slaves exported from each country during Africa's slave trades. I find a robust negative relationship between the number of slaves exported from a country and current economic performance. To better understand if the relationship is causal, I examine the historical evidence on selection into the slave trades and use instrumental variables. Together the evidence suggests that the slave trades had an adverse effect on economic development.en-USJournal Article2010-03-0210.1162/qjec.2008.123.1.139