colonial rule

In Colombia, municipalities subjected to the Spanish encomienda – a colonial system of forced indigenous labour – are wealthier and better governed today, in spite of the extractive institution imposed on them.

New evidence from colonial history is challenging the consensus that extractive institutions always harm long-run development, showing that outcomes depend on whether extraction left behind durable public infrastructure and state capacity.

Drawing on nearly 250 years of Indian colonial history, new research examines how direct British rule and landlord-based land tenure shaped access to schools, health centres, roads, and agricultural productivity across Indian districts. Updated analysis shows that targeted post-colonial policies have erased many of these gaps, but income and fertiliser-use differentials linked to the land system remain.

Investment, enrolment and achievement in primary education in India lag the rest of Asia and Latin America – a crisis 150 years in the making