This paper studies the role of labor coercion in fiscal capacity building in Nigeria during the colonial era. We estimate the value gained from labor coercion and compare this to other colonial expenditure using evidence from British colonial Nigeria. We use datasets on wages and prisoners from...

Institutions of justice, like prisons, can be used to serve economic and other extrajudicial interests, with lasting deleterious effects. We study the effects on incarceration when prisoners are used primarily as a source of labor using evidence from British colonial Nigeria. We digitized...

Institutions of justice, like prisons, can be used to serve economic and other extrajudicial interests, with lasting deleterious effects. We study the effects on incarceration when prisoners are primarily used as a source of labor using evidence from British colonial Nigeria. We digitized 65...