Published on January 17, 2023–Updated on January 25, 2023
Research seminar
The end of slavery in Brazil: Escape and resistance on the road to freedom"
Abstract
In their study of the economics of labor coercion, Acemoglu and Wolitzky (2011) proposed a theoretical argument to unify two mechanisms that scholars had long thought contradicted each other: a labor demand effect, by which the elite coerces labor when supply is scarce, and an outside option effect, by which labor scarcity and better outside options for the workers undermine coercive arrangements. We build a new data set of roll-call votes on 1884-1888 emancipation bills in the Brazilian legislature, and we find that both mechanisms played a role in building the coalition that eventually abolished slavery.
