Replication data for: The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation: Comment

Acemoglu, Johnson, and Robinson's (2001) seminal article argues property-rights institutions powerfully affect national income, using estimated mortality rates of early European settlers to instrument capital expropriation risk. However, 36 of the 64 countries in the sample are assigned mortality rates from other countries, often based on mistaken or conflicting evidence. Also, incomparable mortality rates from populations of laborers, bishops, and soldiers—often on campaign—are combined in a manner that favors the hypothesis. When these data issues are controlled for, the relationship between mortality and expropriation risk lacks robustness, and instrumental-variable estimates become unreliable, often with infinite confidence intervals. (JEL D02, E23, F54, I12, N40, O43, P14)

阿塞莫格鲁、约翰逊与罗宾逊（2001）的开创性论文指出，产权制度对国民收入具有强力影响，该研究以早期欧洲定居者的估算死亡率作为资本剥夺风险的工具变量。然而，样本中的64个国家有36个被赋予了来自其他国家的死亡率数据，且这类赋值往往依据错误或存在冲突的证据。此外，研究将劳工、主教以及随军士兵群体的不可比死亡率，以偏向该研究假说的方式进行合并。当控制上述数据缺陷后，死亡率与资本剥夺风险之间的关联不再具备稳健性，工具变量估计结果也会变得不可靠，其置信区间往往趋于无穷大。(JEL D02, E23, F54, I12, N40, O43, P14)