The Demographic Effects of Colonialism: Forced Labor and Mortality in Java, 1834-1879

We investigate the demographic effects of forced labor
under an extractive colonial regime: the Cultivation System in
nineteenth-century Java. Our panel analyses show that labor demands are
strongly associated with mortality rates, likely resulting from malnourishment and
unhygienic conditions on plantations and the spread of infectious disease. An
instrumental variable approach, using international market prices for coffee
and sugar to predict labor demands, addresses potential endogeneity concerns. Our
estimates suggest that without the abolition of the Cultivation System average
overall mortality in Java would have been between (roughly) 10 and 30 percent
higher by the late 1870s.