Stanley Engerman: One of the greatest and most generous – 05/18/2023 – Market

In 2009, for some reason puzzling to myself, I emailed a paper I had authored to Stanley Engerman, a professor at the University of Rochester. Not only did the recipient not know me (I was a master’s student at USP), but he was one of the most renowned economic historians alive. I thought he wouldn’t get any response, but I was wrong.

Not only did he read the text carefully, but his constructive comments ended with words of encouragement: “everything will be fine in Utrecht” (where my study would be presented).

I found out later that my account was just another one. According to a book in his honor, the many people who sought him out left his office with “informed and, above all, generous advice”, as well as “a new set of bibliographic references that had been forgotten”. On the occasion of his death a few days ago, many testimonies were similar to those of Christopher Meissner (UC Davis), for whom Engerman “led by example, a model of kindness and collegiality”.

Trained in accounting, Engerman switched careers and completed a doctorate in economics at Johns Hopkins, where he was influenced by Simon Kuznets. With Robert Fogel, Engerman co-authored the classic “Time on the Cross: the Economics of American Negro Slavery” in 1974.

The work spread to a wider audience the “new economic history”, an approach that explicitly used economic theory and statistical analysis in history. The book reached groundbreaking and controversial conclusions about slavery in the US. After that, Engerman turned to the comparative study of slavery in the Americas, including mainly the Caribbean but also Brazil.

In the 1990s, Engerman and Kenneth Sokoloff wrote another influential study. “Factor endowments, institutions and differential path among New World economies” attributed the economic divergence between regions of the Americas to differences in the initial endowments of resources in each region. In regions suitable for agricultural or mining exports, a type of colonization would have prevailed that generated institutions favorable to the concentration of wealth, political power and human capital for a small elite. In temperate regions, more egalitarian institutions would have emerged. That is, the initial conditions, mediated by institutions, would explain the relative poverty of Latin America.

For the Brazilian public, this thesis sounds familiar, as it is similar to the dichotomy between types of colonization (exploration versus settlement), popularized in the country by Caio Prado Jr. However, Engerman and Sokoloff went further in examining the mechanisms by which colonization affected economic performance. To support their main thesis, the duo produced several comparative studies on voting rights, education, access to property, patents, among other institutional aspects in the Americas.

Engerman played a crucial role in shaping modern research in economic history, but many will remember his generosity first and foremost. At the age of 87, Engerman passed away on the 11th. Measuring it can be a complex task in history, but it is even more difficult to measure the size of this loss.