TY  - JOUR
AU  - Hornbeck,Richard
AU  - Naidu,Suresh
TI  - When the Levee Breaks:  Black Migration and Economic Development in the American South
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 18296
PY  - 2012
Y2  - August 2012
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w18296
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w18296.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Richard Hornbeck
Department of Economics
Harvard University
232 Littauer Center
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: 202/494-0722
E-Mail: hornbeck@fas.harvard.edu

Suresh Naidu
Columbia University
School of International and Public Affairs
MC 3328
420 West 118th Street
New York, NY 10027
Tel: 212/854-3213
E-Mail: sn2430@columbia.edu
AB  - In the American South, post-bellum economic stagnation has been partially attributed to white landowners' access to low-wage black labor; indeed, Southern economic convergence from 1940 to 1970 was associated with substantial black out-migration.  This paper examines the impact of the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 on agricultural development.  Flooded counties experienced an immediate and persistent out-migration of black population.  Over time, landowners in flooded counties dramatically mechanized and modernized agricultural production relative to landowners in nearby similar non-flooded counties.  Landowners resisted black out-migration, however, benefiting from the status quo system of labor-intensive agricultural production.
ER  -