The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation: Reply: Dataset.” American Economic Review. http:// dx.doi.org/10.1257/aer.102.6.3077

Military returns [reports of disease and death] serve to indicate to the restless wanderers of our race the boundaries which neither the pursuit of wealth nor the dreams of ambition should induce them to pass, and to proclaim in forcible language that man, like the elements, is controlled by a Power which hath said, “Hither thou shalt come, but no further.” — Tulloch, (1847, p. 259) In Acemoglu, Johnson, and Robinson, henceforth AJR, (2001), we advanced the hypothesis that the mortality rates faced by Europeans in different parts of the world after 1500 affected their willingness to establish settlements and choice of coloniza-tion strategy. Places that were relatively healthy (for Europeans) were—when they fell under European control—more likely to receive better economic and political institutions. In contrast, places where European settlers were less likely to go were more likely to have “extractive ” institutions imposed. We also posited that this early pattern of institutions has persisted over time and influences the extent and nature of institutions in the modern world. On this basis, we proposed using estimates o