Economic growth and economic development 209

Introduction to Modern Economic Growth
shows that there were very large differences in European mortality. Countries such
as Australia, New Zealand and the United States were very healthy, and existing
evidence suggests that life expectancy in Australia and New Zealand was in fact
greater than in Britain. In contrast, all Europeans faced extremely high mortality
rates in Africa, India and South-East Asia. Differential mortality was largely due
to tropical diseases such as malaria and yellow fever and at the time it was not
understood how these diseases arose nor how they could be prevented or cured.
.

Avg. Protect. Against Risk Expropriation

10

NZL
AUS

USA
CAN
SGP

GMB

IND

HKG
MYS

8

BRA

CHL
MEXBHS
TTO
COL
VEN
MAR
CRI
URY
PRY
EGY
ECU
DZA
TUN
ARG

ZAF

LKA
PER
BOL

PAK
GUY

6

GAB
IDN
JAM

CIV
TGO

VNM
DOM
KEN
SEN
PAN

TZA
CMR

GIN
GHA
SLE
NGA

HND
BGD
GTM
SLV

NIC

AGO
NER
COG
BFA
UGA

SUR

MDG
MLI

SDN

4

HTI
ZAR

2

4

6

8

Log Settler Mortality

Figure 4.11. The relationship between mortality of potential European settlers and current economic institutions.
Figures 4.11 and 4.12 already show that, if we accept the exclusion restriction
that the mortality rates of potential European settlers should have no effect on current economic outcomes other than through institutions, there is a large impact of
economic institutions on economic performance. This is documented in detail in
Acemoglu, Johnson and Robinson (2001), who present a range of robustness checks
confirming this result. Their estimates suggest that most of the gap between rich
and poor countries today is due to differences in economic institutions. For example,
the evidence suggests that over 75% of the income gap between relatively rich and

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