The growth empirics of two separate but related issues are studied. In the first, the annual data on GDP per person (GDPpp) for Brazil, 1822-2000, and the US, 1869-1996, were converted into arrival times for innovations defined as permanent increments to GDPpp of given size (e.g. 3%). We say an...

This paper synthesizes our results from work on growth in the Americas and especially on the former slave regions. Firstly, we found that significant differences in GDPpp emerged only after slavery was abandoned. At abolition, there was a fall in almost all of them but most started to grow...