John H. Coatsworth

Bio: John H. Coatsworth is an academic researcher from Columbia University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Latin Americans & Independence. The author has an hindex of 21, co-authored 59 publications receiving 1706 citations. Previous affiliations of John H. Coatsworth include Harvard University & University of Chicago.

La historiografia economica de Mexico

Abstract: No cabe duda alguna de que la pasada decada ha presenciado un extraordinario avance en la historia de la actividad economica mexicana. Gran parte de lo que creiamos saber en 1976 ha quedado reducido a notas a pie de pagina, que dan fe del abandono de ideas erroneas y de la adquisicion de nuevos conocimientos. En su mayoria, los avances que con buen acierto celebramos no se deben, como cabria esperar, ni a los que practican lo que seguiamos Ilamando «nueva» historia economica hasta hace un decenio, ni a los teoricos esquematicos de los cuales tomamos aquellos rimbombantes' subtitulos con que una vez decoramos nuestros manuscritos. Este ambito ha avanzado, por el contrario, en virtud de una sostenida acumulacion de historias institucionales, financieras y regionales que han proporcionado abundantes datos nuevos y juicios mas afinados sobre una amplia gama de cuestiones. Y ha avanzado tambien como consecuencia de la compilacion y publicacion de nuevas series de informacion cuantitativa que solo recientemente han empezado a explotar los historiadores.

The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation

Abstract: In Acemoglu, Johnson, and Robinson, henceforth AJR, (2001), we advanced the hypothesis that the mortality rates faced by Europeans in different parts of the world after 1500 affected their willingness to establish settlements and choice of colonization strategy. Places that were relatively healthy (for Europeans) were—when they fell under European control—more likely to receive better economic and political institutions. In contrast, places where European settlers were less likely to go were more likely to have “extractive” institutions imposed. We also posited that this early pattern of institutions has persisted over time and influences the extent and nature of institutions in the modern world. On this basis, we proposed using estimates of potential European settler mortality as an instrument for institutional variation in former European colonies today. Data on settlers themselves are unfortunately patchy—particularly because not many went to places they believed, with good reason, to be most unhealthy. We therefore followed the lead of Curtin (1989 and 1998) who compiled data on the death rates faced by European soldiers in various overseas postings. 1 Curtin’s data were based on pathbreaking data collection and statistical work initiated by the British military in the mid-nineteenth century. These data became part of the foundation of both contemporary thinking about public health (for soldiers and for civilians) and the life insurance industry (as actuaries and executives considered the

History Lessons Institutions, Factor Endowments, and Paths of Development in the New World

Abstract: The explanations offered for the contrasting records of long-run growth and development among the societies of North and South America most often focus on institutions. The traditional explanations for the sources of these differences in institutions, typically highlight the significance of national heritage or religion. We, in contrast, argue that a hemispheric perspective across the wide range of colonies established in the New World by the Europeans suggests that although there were many influences, factor endowments or initial conditions had profound and enduring effects on the long-run paths of institutional and economic development followed by the respective economies.

The Rise of "The Rest": Challenges to the West from Late-Industrializing Economies

Abstract: After World War II a select number of countries outside Japan and the West-those that Alice Amsden calls "the rest"-gained market share in modern industries and altered global competition. By 2000, a great divide had developed within "the rest", the lines drawn according to prewar manufacturing experience and equality in income distribution. China, India, Korea and Taiwan had built their own national manufacturing enterprises that were investing heavily in R&D. Their developmental states had transformed themselves into champions of science and technology. By contrast, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico had experienced a wave of acquisitions and mergers that left even more of their leading enterprises controlled by multinational firms. The developmental states of Mexico and Turkey had become hand-tied by membership in NAFTA and the European Union. Which model of late industrialization will prevail, the "independent" or the "integrationist," is a question that challenges the twenty-first century.

Persistence of Power, Elites and Institutions

Abstract: We construct a model of simultaneous change and persistence in institutions. The model consists of landowning elites and workers, and the key economic decision concerns the form of economic institutions regulating the transaction of labor (e.g., competitive markets versus labor repression). The main idea is that equilibrium economic institutions are a result of the exercise of de jure and de facto political power. A change in political institutions, for example a move from nondemocracy to democracy, alters the distribution of de jure political power, but the elite can intensify their investments in de facto political power, such as lobbying or the use of paramilitary forces, to partially or fully offset their loss of de jure power. In the baseline model, equilibrium changes in political institutions have no effect on the (stochastic) equilibrium distribution of economic institutions, leading to a particular form of persistence in equilibrium institutions, which we refer to as invariance. When the model is enriched to allow for limits on the exercise of de facto power by the elite in democracy or for costs of changing economic institutions, the equilibrium takes the form of a Markov regime-switching process with state dependence. Finally, when we allow for the possibility that changing political institutions is more difficult than altering economic institutions, the model leads to a pattern of captured democracy, whereby a democratic regime may survive, but choose economic institutions favoring the elite. The main ideas featuring in the model are illustrated using historical examples from the U.S. South, Latin America and Liberia.