Nuno Palma

If you use any of the data or replication files in your work, please cite the corresponding paper. 

Working papers

African slavery and the reckoning of Brazil (with Guilherme Lambais)

• • Short abstract: More enslaved Africans disembarked in Brazil than in any other country in the New World. Using new data, we analyze the consequences of this trade. The slave trade made Brazil poorer.

  • Lewis Lab working paper

  • CEPR discussion paper

  • Replication package

American treasure and the decline of Spain (with Carlos J. Charotti and João P. Santos)

• • Short abstract: Spain was one of the world's richest countries around 1500. Two centuries later it was a backwater. We use a synthetic control methodology to investigate why. We should that Spain was victim of a resource curse due to its endowment of American precious metals which in the long run had negative economic and political consequences. 

  • University of Manchester working paper

  • CEPR discussion paper

  • VoxEU (CEPR's policy portal) column

  • Media coverage (The Objective)

  • Replication package

Goldilocks: American precious metals and the Rise of the West (with Yao Chen and Felix Ward)

• • Short abstract: We estimate the contribution of the American precious metal windfall to West Europe’s growth performance in the early modern period.

  • Tinbergen institute discussion paper

  • CEPR discussion paper

  • Slides

  • Replication package

Monetary capacity (with Roberto Bonfatti , Adam Brzezinski, and Kivanç Karaman)

• • Short abstract: Building on long run historical evidence, we argue that money was not neutral in the long run, as greater monetization increased real tax revenues.

  • University of Oxford discussion paper

  • CEPR working paper

  • Vox (CEPR's policy portal) column

  • Replication package

Living standards in Angola, 1760-1975 (with Hélder Carvalhal)

• • Short abstract: We investigate the well-being of urban workers in Angola under colonialism.

  • Lewis Lab working paper

  • African Economic History Network Working Paper 

  • CEPR discussion paper

  • Data 

Justices of the Peace: Legal Foundations of the Industrial Revolution (with Tim Besley, Dan Bogart, and Jonathan Chapman)

• • Short abstract: 

  • Lewis Lab working paper

  • CEPR discussion paper

  • Data

Ambiguity and power: constitutional constraints and comparative prosperity in Europe, 1400-1800 (with António Henriques)

• • Short abstract: 

  • Lewis Lab working paper

  • CEPR discussion paper

  • Replication package

Nobody expects the English Inquisition (with António Henriques)

• • Short abstract: 

  • Lewis Lab working paper

  • CEPR discussion paper

  • Replication package

Treasure and de-industrialization in early modern Spain (with Roberto Bonfatti, Adam Brzezinski, and Eva Fernandez-Garcia)

• • Short abstract: 

  • Lewis Lab working paper

  • CEPR discussion paper

  • Data

Did Greenspan open Pandora's box? testing the Taylor hypothesis (with João Madeira and Christiaan van der Kwaak)

• • Short abstract: 

  • Replication package

A bumpy ride: economic growth in Portugal from the Reconquest to the present (with António Henriques)

• • Short abstract: 

  • Data

The fraudster and the Bank (with Luís Costa and Renato Pistola) 

• • Short abstract: 

  • Lewis Lab working paper

  • CEPR discussion paper

  • Data

The fate of the Taiping rebellion (with Chenyang Qi and Jinlin Wei) 

• • Short abstract: We show, using a new dataset, that scholars educated in Confucian academies became a key force in the suppression of the Taiping. The civil service examinations system helped maintain political stability and associated rents by endowing elites with a stake in the Qing status quo.

  • Lewis Lab working paper

  • CEPR discussion paper

  • Data

Schooling and intergenerational transmission of human capital: evidence from a long historical panel (with Pedro Carneiro, Renato Pistola, and Hugo Reis)

• • Short abstract: 

  • Lewis Lab working paper

  • CEPR discussion paper

  • Data