The GLO Discussion Paper of the Month of May studies the effect of historical slavery on the African American family structure. It reveals that female single headship among African Americans is more likely in association with slavery in sugar plantations, since the extreme demographic and social conditions prevailing in the latter have persistently affected family formation patterns.

GLO Discussion Papers are research and policy papers of the GLO Network which are widely circulated to encourage discussion. Provided in cooperation with EconStor, a service of the ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, GLO Discussion Papers are among others listed in RePEc (see IDEAS, EconPapers). Complete list of all GLO DPs downloadable for free.

GLO Discussion Paper of the Month: May

GLO Discussion Paper No. 564, 2020

Bitter Sugar: Slavery and the Black Family – Download PDF
by Bertocchi, Graziella & Dimico, Arcangelo

GLO Fellows Graziella Bertocchi & Arcangelo Dimico

Author Abstract: We empirically assess the effect of historical slavery on the African American family structure. Our hypothesis is that female single headship among blacks is more likely to emerge in association not with slavery per se, but with slavery in sugar plantations, since the extreme demographic and social conditions prevailing in the latter have persistently affected family formation patterns. By exploiting the exogenous variation in sugar suitability, we establish the following. In 1850, sugar suitability is indeed associated with extreme demographic outcomes within the slave population. Over the period 1880-1940, higher sugar suitability determines a higher likelihood of single female headship. The effect is driven by blacks and starts fading in 1920 in connection with the Great Migration. OLS estimates are complemented with a matching estimator and a fuzzy RDD. Over a linked sample between 1880 and 1930, we identify an even stronger intergenerational legacy of sugar planting for migrants. By 1990, the effect of sugar is replaced by that of slavery and the black share, consistent with the spread of its influence through migration and intermarriage, and black incarceration emerges as a powerful mediator. By matching slaves’ ethnic origins with ethnographic data we rule out any influence of African cultural traditions.

GLO Discussion Papers of May 2020

566 Turning Vietnam’s COVID-19 Success into Economic Recovery: A Job-Focused Analysis of Individual Assessments on Their Finance and the Economy – Download PDF
by Dang, Hai-Anh H. & Giang, Long T.

565 Safety at Work and Immigration – Download PDF
by Bellés-Obrero, Cristina & Martin Bassols, Nicolau & Vall Castello, Judit

564 Bitter Sugar: Slavery and the Black Family – Download PDF
by Bertocchi, Graziella & Dimico, Arcangelo

563 What drives employment-unemployment transitions? Evidence from Italian task-based data – Download PDF
by Cassandra, Nicola & Centra, Marco & Esposito, Piero & Guarascio, Dario

562 Occupational Sorting and Wage Gaps of Refugees – Download PDF
by Baum, Christopher F. & Lööf, Hans & Stephan, Andreas & Zimmermann, Klaus F.

561 Children, Unhappiness and Family Finances – Download PDF
by Blanchflower, David G. & Clark, Andrew E.

560 Cooking Fuel Choice, Indoor Air Quality and Child Mortality in India – Download PDF
by Basu, Arnab K. & Byambasuren, Tsenguunjav & Chau, Nancy H. & Khanna, Neha

559 COVID-19, Stay-at-Home Orders and Employment: Evidence from CPS Data – Download PDF
by Beland, Louis-Philippe & Brodeur, Abel & Wright, Taylor

558 The Role of Institutional Trust in Medical Care Seeking during the COVID-19 Pandemic – Download PDF
by Wong, Li Ping & Wu, Qunhong & Hao, Yanhua & Chen, Xi & Chen, Zhuo & Alias, Haridah & Shen, Mingwang & Hu, Jingcen & Duan, Shiwei & Zhang, Jinjie & Han, Liyuan

557 Does Pre-School Improve Child Development and Affect the Quality of Parent-Child Interaction? Evidence from Algeria – Download PDF
by Lassassi, Moundir

556 Happiness-lost: Did Governments make the right decisions to combat Covid-19? – Download PDF
by Greyling, Talita & Rossouw, Stephanie & Adhikari, Tamanna

555 On Recessive and Expansionary Impact of Financial Development: Empirical Evidence – Download PDF
by Nguena, Christian-Lambert & Kodila-Tedika, Oasis

554 The Distributional Impacts of Early Employment Losses from COVID-19 – Download PDF
by Cho, Seung Jin & Winters, John V.

553 Stay-at-Home Orders, Social Distancing and Trust – Download PDF
by Brodeur, Abel & Grigoryeva, Idaliya & Kattan, Lamis

552 COVID-19, Lockdowns and Well-Being: Evidence from Google Trends – Download PDF
by Brodeur, Abel & Clark, Andrew E. & Fleche, Sarah & Powdthavee, Nattavudh

551 Intergenerational consequences of maternal domestic violence: Effect on nutritional status of children – Download PDF
by Pakrashi, Debayan & Saha, Sarani

550 Sleeping patterns and psychological wellbeing: Evidence from young adults in the United States – Download PDF
by Lalji, Chitwan & Pakrashi, Debayan

549 Don’t judge a book by its cover: The role of intergroup contact in reducing prejudice in conflict settings – Download PDF
by Maiti, Surya Nath & Pakrashi, Debayan & Saha, Sarani & Smyth, Russell

548 Lost Wages: The COVID-19 Cost of School Closures – Download PDF
by Psacharopoulos, George & Collis, Victoria & Patrinos, Harry Anthony & Vegas, Emiliana

547 Gendered Effects of Employment Protection on Earnings Mobility – Download PDF
by Bárcena-Martín, Elena & Medina-Claros, Samuel & Pérez-Moreno, Salvador

546 Telework and Time Use in the United States – Download PDF
by Pabilonia, Sabrina Wulff & Vernon, Victoria

545 Deportation, Crime, and Victimization – Download PDF
by Rozo, Sandra V. & Anders, Therese & Raphael, Steven

544 Life Dissatisfaction and Anxiety in COVID-19 pandemic – Download PDF
by de Pedraza, Pablo & Guzi, Martin & Tijdens, Kea

543 Understanding the rising trend in female labour force participation – Download PDF
by Hérault, Nicolas & Kalb, Guyonne

542 The short-term Economic Consequences of COVID-19: Occupation Tasks and Mental Health in Canada – Download PDF
by Beland, Louis-Philippe & Brodeur, Abel & Mikola, Derek & Wright, Taylor

541 All that glitters is not gold. Effects of working from home on income inequality at the time of COVID-19 – Download PDF
by Bonacini, Luca & Gallo, Giovanni & Scicchitano, Sergio

540 Does Immigration Decrease Far-Right Popularity? Evidence from Finnish Municipalities – Download PDF
by Lonsky, Jakub

539 From the Entrepreneurial to the Ossified Economy: Evidence, Explanations and a New Perspective – Download PDF
by Naudé, Wim

538 Estimating Poverty among Refugee Populations: A Cross-Survey Imputation Exercise for Chad – Download PDF
by Beltramo, Theresa & Dang, Hai-Anh H. & Sarr, Ibrahima & Verme, Paolo

537 The Influence of Hidden Researcher Decisions in Applied Microeconomics – Download PDF
by Huntington-Klein, Nick & Arenas, Andreu & Beam, Emily & Bertoni, Marco & Bloem, Jeffrey R. & Burli, Pralhad & Chen, Naibin & Greico, Paul & Ekpe, Godwin & Pugatch, Todd & Saavedra, Martin & Stopnitzky, Yaniv

536 Does retirement lead to life satisfaction? Causal evidence from fixed effect instrumental variable models – Download PDF
by Nguyen, Ha Trong & Mitrou, Francis & Taylor, Catherine L. & Zubrick, Stephen R.

535 Welfare Dynamics in India over a Quarter Century: Poverty, Vulnerability, and Mobility during 1987-2012 – Download PDF
by Dang, Hai-Anh H. & Lanjouw, Peter F.

534 Drawing policy suggestions to fight Covid-19 from hardly reliable data. A machine-learning contribution on lockdowns analysis – Download PDF
by Bonacini, Luca & Gallo, Giovanni & Patriarca, Fabrizio

533 Leaders among the leaders in Economics: A network analysis of the Nobel Prize laureates  – Download PDF
by Molina, José Alberto & Iñiguez, David & Ruiz, Gonzalo & Tarancón, Alfonso

532 The COVID-19 crisis and telework: A research survey on experiences, expectations and hopes – Download PDF
by Baert, Stijn & Lippens, Louis & Moens, Eline & Sterkens, Philippe & Weytjens, Johannes

531 Peers, Gender, and Long-Term Depression– Download PDF
by Giulietti, Corrado & Vlassopoulos, Michael & Zenou, Yves

GLO DP Team
Senior Editors: Matloob Piracha (University of Kent) & GLO; Klaus F. Zimmermann (UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University and Bonn University).
Managing Editor: Magdalena Ulceluse, University of Groningen. DP@glabor.org  

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