Over the past decade, several path breaking studies have extended our knowledge of real wages in (mostly British) colonial Africa (Bowden, Chiripanhura and Mosley 2008; Frankema and van Waijenburg 2012, Juif and Frankema 2016). They have shown a substantial range in welfare levels of unskilled labourers, and have proposed tentative ...
(Show more)Over the past decade, several path breaking studies have extended our knowledge of real wages in (mostly British) colonial Africa (Bowden, Chiripanhura and Mosley 2008; Frankema and van Waijenburg 2012, Juif and Frankema 2016). They have shown a substantial range in welfare levels of unskilled labourers, and have proposed tentative explanations for the variety. In this paper, we seek to extend the empirical foundation of debates about comparative African welfare development beyond rural and urban unskilled wages, and provide a more comprehensive perspective on income structures of African colonial economies. We are interested in capturing income inequality, both within and between countries. Various scholars have already, or are currently, constructed social tables for 9 British and 3 French colonies for a series of benchmark years between 1880 and 1970 (e.g. Aboagye and Bolt 2017; Bolt and Hillbom 2016). We take stock of these social tables, provide a first attempt at harmonization and comparison, and explore the potential for testing key explanations for inequality and welfare development, related to distinctions between peasant and settler colonies, British and French Africa and the various resource bases of African economies (annual crops, perennial crops, cattle, minerals, etc.). As we are comparing and analysing the differences in income levels, we are also able to trace temporal and spatial patterns of rural-urban divides as well as skill and race premiums.
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