Mary De Haas
Biographic Data
| ID | 124513 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Mary De Haas |
| GIVEN NAMES | Mary |
| FAMILY NAME | De Haas |
| SIGNATURE | DE HAAS M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Wageningen University & Research |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0830-7803 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 96 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1987 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Africa's Migration Transition
Popular and political concerns about accelerating migration from sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are often framed through migration transition theory, which posits that as poor regions develop, migration rates first rise and later decline after surpassing a certain development threshold. SSA is widely viewed by scholars, pundits, and policymakers as the region where migration rates have only just begun to climb the upward slope. Adopting a long-run hist…
Cotton imperialism in Africa
The exchange of raw cotton and consumer textiles has been widely portrayed as a core element of European imperialism in Africa. The case appears straightforward: textile industries were vital to European economies, yet depended on imported raw cotton and external markets for their surplus output. To meet these needs, colonizers allegedly enforced trade and destroyed African textile sectors, leaving Africans to resist or be coerced. This stylized …
The age of intra-African migration
Rising migration out of Africa is attracting great attention among scholars, policy makers and pundits. In terms of past African mobility, forced emigration through the slave trade, with its nefarious characteristics and long-lasting legacies, has also received much publicity. But what happened to African mobility in the long century between the demise of the trans-oceanic slave trades after 1850 and the gradual resurgence of African extra-contin…
Income inequality and export-oriented commercialization in colonial Africa
Limited knowledge of African historical inequality trajectories hampers our understanding of inequality outcomes today and leads to a major omission in debates about global inequality. Economies in colonial Africa were characterized by a process of export-oriented commercialization. We hypothesize that this process itself, the capital intensity of the commodities produced, and the relative importance of European and Asian expatriates and settlers…
Inequality Regimes in Africa From Pre-Colonial Times to the Present
While current levels of economic inequality in Africa receive ample attention from academics and policymakers, we know little about the long-run evolution of inequality in the region. Even the new and influential ‘global inequality literature’ that is associated with scholars like Thomas Piketty, Branko Milanovic, and Walter Scheidel has had little to say about Africa so far. This paper is a first effort to fill that void. Building on recent rese…
Cash-Crop Migration Systems in East and West Africa
From the late 19th into the mid-20th century millions of people migrated, seasonally or more permanently, to regions where African farmers produced cocoa, groundnuts, coffee, cotton, and palm oil for export. These “cash-crop migrations” occurred mostly under colonial rule, but they were not directed or controlled by Europeans, and were shaped by a history that preceded colonialism. This chapter studies the four major cash-crop migration systems a…
Migration in Africa
The Failure of Cotton Imperialism in Africa
Cash-crop diffusion in colonial Africa was uneven and defied colonizers' expectations and efforts, especially for cotton. This study investigates how agricultural seasonality affected African farmers' cotton adoption, circa 1900-1960. A contrast between British Uganda and the interior of French West Africa demonstrates that a short rainy season and the resulting short farming cycles generated seasonal labor bottlenecks and food security concerns,…
Educational Gender Inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa
To what extent did sub-Saharan Africa's twentieth century schooling revolution benefit boys and girls equally? Using census data and a cohort approach, we examine gender gaps in years of education over the twentieth century at world region, country and district levels. First, we find that compared to other developing regions, Africa had a small initial educational gender gap but subsequently made the least progress in closing the gap. Second, in …
Moving Beyond Colonial Control? Economic Forces and Shifting Migration From Ruanda-Urundi to Buganda, 1920–60
Migration was a crucial component of the spatially uneven formation of labour markets and export-oriented economies in colonial Africa. Much of this mobility was initiated by migrants themselves rather than by colonial authorities. Building on analytical concepts from economic history and migration theory, this study explains the changing composition and magnitude of one such uncontrolled migration flow, from Ruanda-Urundi to Buganda. Migrants’ m…
Gender, ethnicity, and unequal opportunity in colonial Uganda
The renaissance of African economic history in the past decade has opened up new research avenues for studying the long‐term social and economic development of Africa. A sensitive treatment of African realities in the evaluation of European colonial legacies and a critical stance towards the use of new sources and approaches is crucial. In this article, we engage with a recent article by Meier zu Selhausen and Weisdorf to show how selection biase…
Retracted
Measuring rural welfare in colonial Africa
Recent scholarship on historical welfare development in Sub-Saharan Africa has uncovered long-term trends in standards of living. How the majority of rural dwellers fared, however, remains largely elusive. This study develops a new approach to reconstruct rural living standards in a historical context. It builds upon a well-established real wage literature, but moves beyond it to capture rural realities, employing sub-national rural survey, censu…
Ethnicity and federalism
(1994). Ethnicity and federalism: the case of KwaZulu/Natal. Journal of Southern African Studies: Vol. 20, Ethnicity and identity in Southern Africa, pp. 433-446
Is there anything more to say about Lobolo
Educational Gender Inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa
To what extent did sub-Saharan Africa's twentieth century schooling revolution benefit boys and girls equally? Using census data and a cohort approach, we examine gender gaps in years of education over the twentieth century at world region, country and district levels. First, we find that compared to other developing regions, Africa had a small initial educational gender gap but subsequently made the least progress in closing the gap. Second, in …
Measuring rural welfare in colonial Africa
Recent scholarship on historical welfare development in Sub-Saharan Africa has uncovered long-term trends in standards of living. How the majority of rural dwellers fared, however, remains largely elusive. This study develops a new approach to reconstruct rural living standards in a historical context. It builds upon a well-established real wage literature, but moves beyond it to capture rural realities, employing sub-national rural survey, censu…
Gender, ethnicity, and unequal opportunity in colonial Uganda
The renaissance of African economic history in the past decade has opened up new research avenues for studying the long‐term social and economic development of Africa. A sensitive treatment of African realities in the evaluation of European colonial legacies and a critical stance towards the use of new sources and approaches is crucial. In this article, we engage with a recent article by Meier zu Selhausen and Weisdorf to show how selection biase…
Is there anything more to say about Lobolo
Moving Beyond Colonial Control? Economic Forces and Shifting Migration From Ruanda-Urundi to Buganda, 1920–60
Migration was a crucial component of the spatially uneven formation of labour markets and export-oriented economies in colonial Africa. Much of this mobility was initiated by migrants themselves rather than by colonial authorities. Building on analytical concepts from economic history and migration theory, this study explains the changing composition and magnitude of one such uncontrolled migration flow, from Ruanda-Urundi to Buganda. Migrants’ m…
Ethnicity and federalism
(1994). Ethnicity and federalism: the case of KwaZulu/Natal. Journal of Southern African Studies: Vol. 20, Ethnicity and identity in Southern Africa, pp. 433-446
The Failure of Cotton Imperialism in Africa
Cash-crop diffusion in colonial Africa was uneven and defied colonizers' expectations and efforts, especially for cotton. This study investigates how agricultural seasonality affected African farmers' cotton adoption, circa 1900-1960. A contrast between British Uganda and the interior of French West Africa demonstrates that a short rainy season and the resulting short farming cycles generated seasonal labor bottlenecks and food security concerns,…
Retracted
The age of intra-African migration
Rising migration out of Africa is attracting great attention among scholars, policy makers and pundits. In terms of past African mobility, forced emigration through the slave trade, with its nefarious characteristics and long-lasting legacies, has also received much publicity. But what happened to African mobility in the long century between the demise of the trans-oceanic slave trades after 1850 and the gradual resurgence of African extra-contin…
Inequality Regimes in Africa From Pre-Colonial Times to the Present
While current levels of economic inequality in Africa receive ample attention from academics and policymakers, we know little about the long-run evolution of inequality in the region. Even the new and influential ‘global inequality literature’ that is associated with scholars like Thomas Piketty, Branko Milanovic, and Walter Scheidel has had little to say about Africa so far. This paper is a first effort to fill that void. Building on recent rese…
Income inequality and export-oriented commercialization in colonial Africa
Limited knowledge of African historical inequality trajectories hampers our understanding of inequality outcomes today and leads to a major omission in debates about global inequality. Economies in colonial Africa were characterized by a process of export-oriented commercialization. We hypothesize that this process itself, the capital intensity of the commodities produced, and the relative importance of European and Asian expatriates and settlers…
Is there anything more to say about Lobolo
Ethnicity and federalism
(1994). Ethnicity and federalism: the case of KwaZulu/Natal. Journal of Southern African Studies: Vol. 20, Ethnicity and identity in Southern Africa, pp. 433-446
Retracted
Measuring rural welfare in colonial Africa
Recent scholarship on historical welfare development in Sub-Saharan Africa has uncovered long-term trends in standards of living. How the majority of rural dwellers fared, however, remains largely elusive. This study develops a new approach to reconstruct rural living standards in a historical context. It builds upon a well-established real wage literature, but moves beyond it to capture rural realities, employing sub-national rural survey, censu…
Gender, ethnicity, and unequal opportunity in colonial Uganda
The renaissance of African economic history in the past decade has opened up new research avenues for studying the long‐term social and economic development of Africa. A sensitive treatment of African realities in the evaluation of European colonial legacies and a critical stance towards the use of new sources and approaches is crucial. In this article, we engage with a recent article by Meier zu Selhausen and Weisdorf to show how selection biase…
Moving Beyond Colonial Control? Economic Forces and Shifting Migration From Ruanda-Urundi to Buganda, 1920–60
Migration was a crucial component of the spatially uneven formation of labour markets and export-oriented economies in colonial Africa. Much of this mobility was initiated by migrants themselves rather than by colonial authorities. Building on analytical concepts from economic history and migration theory, this study explains the changing composition and magnitude of one such uncontrolled migration flow, from Ruanda-Urundi to Buganda. Migrants’ m…
The Failure of Cotton Imperialism in Africa
Cash-crop diffusion in colonial Africa was uneven and defied colonizers' expectations and efforts, especially for cotton. This study investigates how agricultural seasonality affected African farmers' cotton adoption, circa 1900-1960. A contrast between British Uganda and the interior of French West Africa demonstrates that a short rainy season and the resulting short farming cycles generated seasonal labor bottlenecks and food security concerns,…
Educational Gender Inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa
To what extent did sub-Saharan Africa's twentieth century schooling revolution benefit boys and girls equally? Using census data and a cohort approach, we examine gender gaps in years of education over the twentieth century at world region, country and district levels. First, we find that compared to other developing regions, Africa had a small initial educational gender gap but subsequently made the least progress in closing the gap. Second, in …
Cash-Crop Migration Systems in East and West Africa
From the late 19th into the mid-20th century millions of people migrated, seasonally or more permanently, to regions where African farmers produced cocoa, groundnuts, coffee, cotton, and palm oil for export. These “cash-crop migrations” occurred mostly under colonial rule, but they were not directed or controlled by Europeans, and were shaped by a history that preceded colonialism. This chapter studies the four major cash-crop migration systems a…
Migration in Africa
Inequality Regimes in Africa From Pre-Colonial Times to the Present
While current levels of economic inequality in Africa receive ample attention from academics and policymakers, we know little about the long-run evolution of inequality in the region. Even the new and influential ‘global inequality literature’ that is associated with scholars like Thomas Piketty, Branko Milanovic, and Walter Scheidel has had little to say about Africa so far. This paper is a first effort to fill that void. Building on recent rese…
Income inequality and export-oriented commercialization in colonial Africa
Limited knowledge of African historical inequality trajectories hampers our understanding of inequality outcomes today and leads to a major omission in debates about global inequality. Economies in colonial Africa were characterized by a process of export-oriented commercialization. We hypothesize that this process itself, the capital intensity of the commodities produced, and the relative importance of European and Asian expatriates and settlers…
Cotton imperialism in Africa
The exchange of raw cotton and consumer textiles has been widely portrayed as a core element of European imperialism in Africa. The case appears straightforward: textile industries were vital to European economies, yet depended on imported raw cotton and external markets for their surplus output. To meet these needs, colonizers allegedly enforced trade and destroyed African textile sectors, leaving Africans to resist or be coerced. This stylized …
The age of intra-African migration
Rising migration out of Africa is attracting great attention among scholars, policy makers and pundits. In terms of past African mobility, forced emigration through the slave trade, with its nefarious characteristics and long-lasting legacies, has also received much publicity. But what happened to African mobility in the long century between the demise of the trans-oceanic slave trades after 1850 and the gradual resurgence of African extra-contin…
Africa's Migration Transition
Popular and political concerns about accelerating migration from sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are often framed through migration transition theory, which posits that as poor regions develop, migration rates first rise and later decline after surpassing a certain development threshold. SSA is widely viewed by scholars, pundits, and policymakers as the region where migration rates have only just begun to climb the upward slope. Adopting a long-run hist…
Geography (10 works) · Colonialism (9 works) · Economics (9 works) · Development economics (8 works) · Political science (7 works) · Sociology (7 works) · African history and culture studies (6 works) · Agriculture (5 works) · Cash crop (5 works) · Demography (5 works)