Essays on the Political Economy of Development

This thesis explores the long-term political and economic effects of historical economic and social events in Malaysia. The first chapter examines how the rise of rubber plantations in the early 20th century influenced education. Proximity to rubber estates boosted schooling levels due to higher incomes and economic shifts away from agriculture. The second chapter investigates the forced relocation of over 500,000 ethnic Chinese into isolated camps (the Chinese New Villages) during the Malayan Emergency (1948-1960), showing that areas near these Chinese camps experienced better economic outcomes but lower support for nationalist politics. This is possibly due to a lower perceived need for political power to protect their group's economic interests. The final chapter shows the social and political effects of micro-level inter-group contact.