Structural Impediments to African Growth? New Evidence from Real Wages in British Africa, 1880–1965
利用英属非洲九个殖民地1880-1965年城市非熟练工人的实际工资数据，发现非洲实际工资远高于生存水平且随时间显著上升，西非和毛里求斯的实际工资水平远高于亚洲，挑战了非洲贫困长期存在的观点。
Recent literature on the historical determinants of African poverty has emphasized structural impediments to African growth, such as adverse geographical conditions, weak institutions, or ethnic heterogeneity. But has African poverty been a persistent historical phenomenon? This article checks such assumptions against the historical record. We push African income estimates back in time by presenting urban unskilled real wages for nine British African colonies (1880–1965). We find that African real wages were well above subsistence level and that they rose significantly over time. Moreover, in West Africa and Mauritius real wage levels were considerably higher than those in Asia.