Settlers, slaves, and merchants: the role of migrant networks in the economic development of the Americas

Yale University, New Haven CT

Investigators

Abstract

Human capital is a term that refers to a person’s ability to produce value. Regions with populations with high levels of human capital are richer today, but what explains the differences in human capital between regions? Where people go and where they live determine how much human capital different places in the world have and in turn how wealthy or poor different regions are. Regional wealth differences in the Americas depend not only on who lives there now, but also on historical patterns of migration and human capital concentration during colonial times. This project develops a large database of where voluntary and involuntary (slaves) migrants went during colonial times. The database will contain information about migrants’ origins, measures of their human capital such as education and occupation, and map migration networks from Spain and Africa to the Americas. The database will allow researchers and others to learn what types of human capital were important and how the human capital of migrants influenced long-term economic development in different regions. This project will create an open-source public database that will be available for scholars to carry out research on migration from a historical perspective in fields across the social sciences. The database will include the origins and destinations of all migrants, their physical attributes, and historical and contemporary socio-economic outcomes. Through a dedicated bilingual (English and Spanish) website, this project will provide: (i) the ability to examine data by regions over time in open-source friendly formats; (ii) historical maps with information on the main regions of origin and destination for migrants; (iii) short essays on migration flows, (iv) examples of primary sources; and (v) relevant bibliography. With this comprehensive database, researchers will be able to answer a large scope of questions about economic development in the Americas from a multidisciplinary perspective. Moreover, students and the public alike will be able to see first-hand the extraordinary flow of people that shaped the modern multicultural societies found all over the Americas. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.