Resumen de Conflicts over land, labor, and rent: essays on the political economy of institutional change
Slavery had long been one of the dominant world labor institutions before its demise in the nineteenth century. This paper shows that changing economic interests determined shifts in political support for slavery. We exploit the competitive forces generated by the Southern US Westward territorial expansion between 1810 and 1860 to identify changes in local economic incentives for the use of slave labor. We show that areas losing comparative advantage in the production of cotton with respect to wheat changed their production decisions, reduced their use of slave labor, and decreased political support for slavery. Using information on Presidential and Gubernatorial elections, Congressional representatives roll-call behavior, Newspapers' supply of slavery-related content, and free black population, our results show that the Westward expansion polarized the Southern productive, political and social system in the decades leading to the Civil War.
