North And South Essay Research Paper The

North And South Essay, Research Paper

The first two reading selections for Economics 344 make some notable observations about the growth and development of budding economies. In Engerman and Sokoloff s chapter entitled Factor Endowments, Institutions, and Differential Paths of Growth Among New World Economies, the authors compare the economic growth levels of the North American colonies to those of Latin American colonies. Then, in Tracking the Economic Divergence of the North and the South, Peter Coclanis notes the different economic paths taken by these two distinct regions of the United States. Overall, these two essays are similar in nature they make similar comparisons across two regions using similar criteria. The readings, however, differ drastically in their subject matter and in the scope of the comparisons.

In the first reading, Stanley Engerman and Kenneth Sokoloff attempt to explain what factors contributed to the different levels of economic development between the North American colonies and the Latin American colonies. They hypothesize that the United States and Canada were able to sustain economic growth due to factor endowments that were superior to those of Central and South America. Endowments such as climate, soil, and density of the native population, they say, predisposed certain colonies to accomplishing economic growth. Institutions and government policies such as land policies and trade regulations were also significant determining factors, but less so than factor endowments. After comparing the prosperous colonies to the less prosperous, the authors then briefly state differences within the United States colonies as far as economic growth is concerned. Numerous differences in the economic patterns of the North and the South are pointed out indeed, in many ways the South resembled those colonies that became less successful. Despite these distinctions, in the end, the authors conclude that overall, the South s economy was a unique case and ultimately realized a record of growth more like those of the northern United States or Canada.

The second piece compares the patterns of economic growth experienced by the North and the South. Coclanis points out numerous variations in the economies of the two regions from the seventeenth century and forward two hundred years. The factor endowments are noted here as well, while political factors play less of a role. Overall, the author concludes that the economic divergence of the North and South was quite large, and the differences most definitely outweigh the similarities.

The two readings share both remarkable similarities as well as sharp differences. The bulk of the similarities lie in the nature of the essays and the methods and criteria used to draw comparisons. The two are extremely similar in that they both have the same main goal; that is, to compare the economic growth trends across two different regions while attempting to discern what factors were responsible for these differences. The first article compared the United States and Canada to the rest of the New World and identified certain aspects that caused the former to sustain higher economic growth than the latter. Likewise, the second essay compared the North and the South while attempting to pinpoint factors that caused the North to outdistance the South in terms of economic prosperity. Thus, one fundamental similarity between these two readings is that they both compared two regions, one more successful than the other at sustaining economic growth, and attempted to pinpoint the reasons for these discrepancies.

A second significant likeness between the two readings lies in the fact that they both focused largely on one aspect factor endowments in trying to explain the gaps in economic growth. Both pieces seemed to place more of an emphasis on things such as climate, soil, the density of the native population and/or slaves, and the distribution of landholdings, wealth, and power. Institutions and political policies, the authors say, did not influence these factor endowments; rather, the factor endowments were primarily responsible and were perpetuated by political tendencies. For example, Engerman and Sokoloff state that the colonies that succeeded economically, the so-called category three colonies, had certain characteristics in common. They did not have a huge native population or slave population. They were not entirely specialized in one area of crop production. They had a mainly European labor force with a high level of human capital. And most importantly, they had a relatively equal distribution of wealth and landholdings. By contrast, category one and two colonies had a large slave or native population that constituted most of the labor force, an unequal distribution of wealth, large scale enterprises, and a great deal of inequality. In Coclanis essay, he points to similar factors as a cause of the North s economic prosperity. Coclanis cites climate, resources, and profit possibilities as reasons. The North, in comparison to the South, was more economically diverse, less specialized in crop production, had fewer slaves and more European workers, and had a more equal distribution of wealth and landholdings. Thus we see another fundamental similarities between the two articles both attribute superior economic growth to similar factors known as factor endowments.

There are numerous other similarities bet