[Seminaire CREM] Persistence or Abolition of Serfdom: A Role for Culture? - Faculté Des Sciences Economiques

Abstract:
We propose a theoretical framework to investigate how the cultural acceptance of serf labor within the elite affects the institution of serfdom. To do so, we propose a model with two social classes: workers and the elite. Workers are divided between free workers and serfs. Within the elite, there are two cultural groups: modernists and traditionalists. Modernists exhibit a higher disutility cost when they use serf labor than traditionalists. Culture is defined as the distribution of these two traits within the elite. Its evolves via the cultural transmission mechanism proposed by Bisin and Verdier (2001). The existence or nonexistence of serfdom as an institution is determined by the cultural distribution within the elite through a majority voting rule. The long-run dynamics of our model exhibit multiple equilibria: an equilibrium with the abolition of serfdom and an equilibrium where serfdom persists. The convergence toward one or the other depends on the structural parameters of the economy. The model argues that the fall of serfdom is a natural process driven by cultural changes in countries or regions where modernists assigned greater importance to freedom and equality. Finally, we discuss why Eastern countries abolished serfdom later than Western countries, based on our results.