A chat with Leonard Wantchekon about the Slave Trade and the Origins of Mistrust in Africa

GrowthChat is a podcast on the social and cultural journey of humankind, hosted by Marco Lecci and Sascha O. Becker.  In this episode we chat with Leonard Wantchekon about his paper​ "The Slave Trade and the Origins of Mistrust in Africa”. Leonard and his co-author, Nathan Nunn, study why the current differences in trust levels within Africa can be traced back to the transatlantic and Indian Ocean slave trades. Combining contemporary individual-level survey data with historical data on slave shipments by ethnic group, they find that individuals whose ancestors were heavily raided during the slave trade are less trusting today.

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A podcast series where we interview economists and other social scientist asking about their recent research papers and publications. The aim of this podcast is to share the work that economists, sociologist, anthropologist and historians do, making it accessible to students and the general public, independently from their background and preparation.