Ellen Hillbom
Biographic Data
| ID | 140221 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Ellen Hillbom |
| GIVEN NAMES | Ellen |
| FAMILY NAME | Hillbom |
| SIGNATURE | HILLBOM E |
| AFFILIATIONS | Lund University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0820-2729 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 77 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 18 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Rural Capitalists and Development in Colonial Africa: A Comparative Analysis
This paper explores the emergence and role of rural capitalists in colonial Sub‐Saharan Africa by comparing three peasant‐based economies: Bechuanaland, the Gold Coast and Tanganyika. Using social tables, we estimate the population and income shares of better earning agricultural producers and assess their impact on rural inequality and development. We find that rural capitalists in each colony adapted their economic strategies to local ecologica…
Income inequality and export-oriented commercialization in colonial Africa: Evidence from six countries
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…
The history of African development: A textbook for a new generation of African students and teachers
The African Economic History Network (AEHN) is an academic initiative intended to foster communication, collaboration and research as well as teaching amongst scholars studying the longterm development of sub-Saharan Africa, from the pre
Regional evidence of smallholder-based growth in Zambia’s livestock sector
Registration of private interests in land in a community lands policy setting: An exploratory study in Meru district, Tanzania
Current Tanzanian land law offers registration of private interests in land in the form of Certificates of Customary Rights of Occupancy (CCROs) within a broader community lands approach. We conducted qualitative research on the issuance of CCROs along a mountain slope transect in Meru district in northeast Tanzania. This area features intensified smallholder agriculture that evolutionary theory suggests is well adapted for registration of privat…
Tax bargaining, fiscal contracts, and fiscal capacity in Ghana: A long-term perspective
Many Sub-Saharan African countries are unable to generate sufficient tax revenues for public purposes. While it is widely accepted that governments’ ability to tax is shaped by politics, the precise mechanisms through which this relationship takes place in practice remain elusive. Based on a historical analysis of four major tax reforms in Ghana from the 1850s to the late 1990s, this article captures the various ways in which taxpayers negotiate …
An Economic History of Development in sub-Saharan Africa: Economic Transformations and Political Changes
Botswana – A Modern Economic History
Endogenous Processes of Colonial Settlement. The Success and Failure of European Settler Farming in Sub-Saharan Africa
This paper comments on studies that aim to quantify the long-term economic effects of historical European settlement across the globe. We argue for the need to properly conceptualise «colonial settlement» as an endogenous development process shaped by the interaction between prospective settlers and indigenous peoples. We conduct three comparative case studies in West, East and Southern Africa, showing that the «success» or «failure» of colonial …
Pro-poor agricultural growth – Inclusion or differentiation? Village level perspectives from Zambia
Long-term trends in economic inequality: Lessons from colonial Botswana, 1921-74
This article contributes to the growing literature on colonial legacies influencing long-term development. It focuses on Botswana, a case where the post-independence diamond-led economy has been considered an economic success story, despite its high levels of inequality. Here it is argued that this pathway of rapid resource-driven growth combined with increasing socio-economic inequality had already started during the time of the colonial cattle …
Potential for Diversification? The Role of the Formal Sector in Bechuanaland Protectorate's Economy, 1900–65
While Botswana since independence has experienced impressive economic growth and development this progress has not been accompanied by economic diversification and endogenous growth. In this article we focus on the colonial period and investigate to what extent the formal sector of Bechuanaland Protectorate (colonial Botswana) had the potential to constitute the basis for a diversification of the dominating cattle economy away from its dependency…
From millet to tomatoes: Incremental intensification with high-value crops in contemporary Meru, Tanzania
In Meru, Tanzania, changing land/labour ratios have, for over a century, been the main driving force in a farm intensification process. The construction and expansion of irrigation systems, increased use of farm inputs and transfer from low- to high-value agricultural crops have enabled smallholders to improve their land productivity. Technological change has been accompanied by institutional change, primarily in the form of changes to property r…
Assessing the role of property rights and legal empowerment in poverty reduction
Market institutions benefiting smallholders in contemporary Meru, Tanzania
Smallholders in developing countries can potentially benefit from access to local, regional, national and international markets as they intermediate between rural and urban demand for agricultural products and smallholder supply. This study investigates how smallholders in Meru, Tanzania make use of the various marketing channels that are available to them, and argues that the variety of potential marketing channels and easily accessible market i…
When water is from God: Formation of property rights governing communal irrigation furrows in Meru, Tanzania, c. 1890-2011
In Meru, Tanzania local initiatives were instrumental in establishing a gravity irrigation system in the 1890s. The original property rights institutions governing furrows were characterised by de facto communal ownership and management combined with private temporary user rights. Over the last 12 decades farming systems in Meru have experienced changing land/labour ratios, overall technological and institutional change as well as increased deman…
Farm Intensification and Milk Market Expansion in Meru, Tanzania
In Meru, Tanzania, technological and institutional change has turned milk into one of the most reliable and important sources of income for smallholder households. Decades of increased population density have caused land scarcity, leading smallholders to intensity their fanning methods and land use, including introducing stall-fed exotic breeds of dairy cows. Meanwhile, a growing urban and rural demand has resulted in a significant market expansi…
Diamonds or development? A structural assessment of Botswana's forty years of success
Due to its four decades of high long-term economic growth and democratic system, Botswana has been depicted as an exceptional success story in a region full of economic and political failures. In this article, a structural analysis is applied, and it is argued that Botswana's success should be understood as one of pre-modern growth without development. It is claimed that although the country may be a growth miracle, it has not yet experienced 'mo…
Diamonds or development? A structural assessment of Botswana's forty years of success
Due to its four decades of high long-term economic growth and democratic system, Botswana has been depicted as an exceptional success story in a region full of economic and political failures. In this article, a structural analysis is applied, and it is argued that Botswana's success should be understood as one of pre-modern growth without development. It is claimed that although the country may be a growth miracle, it has not yet experienced 'mo…
Long-term trends in economic inequality: Lessons from colonial Botswana, 1921-74
This article contributes to the growing literature on colonial legacies influencing long-term development. It focuses on Botswana, a case where the post-independence diamond-led economy has been considered an economic success story, despite its high levels of inequality. Here it is argued that this pathway of rapid resource-driven growth combined with increasing socio-economic inequality had already started during the time of the colonial cattle …
When water is from God: Formation of property rights governing communal irrigation furrows in Meru, Tanzania, c. 1890-2011
In Meru, Tanzania local initiatives were instrumental in establishing a gravity irrigation system in the 1890s. The original property rights institutions governing furrows were characterised by de facto communal ownership and management combined with private temporary user rights. Over the last 12 decades farming systems in Meru have experienced changing land/labour ratios, overall technological and institutional change as well as increased deman…
Tax bargaining, fiscal contracts, and fiscal capacity in Ghana: A long-term perspective
Many Sub-Saharan African countries are unable to generate sufficient tax revenues for public purposes. While it is widely accepted that governments’ ability to tax is shaped by politics, the precise mechanisms through which this relationship takes place in practice remain elusive. Based on a historical analysis of four major tax reforms in Ghana from the 1850s to the late 1990s, this article captures the various ways in which taxpayers negotiate …
Pro-poor agricultural growth – Inclusion or differentiation? Village level perspectives from Zambia
Farm Intensification and Milk Market Expansion in Meru, Tanzania
In Meru, Tanzania, technological and institutional change has turned milk into one of the most reliable and important sources of income for smallholder households. Decades of increased population density have caused land scarcity, leading smallholders to intensity their fanning methods and land use, including introducing stall-fed exotic breeds of dairy cows. Meanwhile, a growing urban and rural demand has resulted in a significant market expansi…
Botswana – A Modern Economic History
Endogenous Processes of Colonial Settlement. The Success and Failure of European Settler Farming in Sub-Saharan Africa
This paper comments on studies that aim to quantify the long-term economic effects of historical European settlement across the globe. We argue for the need to properly conceptualise «colonial settlement» as an endogenous development process shaped by the interaction between prospective settlers and indigenous peoples. We conduct three comparative case studies in West, East and Southern Africa, showing that the «success» or «failure» of colonial …
Potential for Diversification? The Role of the Formal Sector in Bechuanaland Protectorate's Economy, 1900–65
While Botswana since independence has experienced impressive economic growth and development this progress has not been accompanied by economic diversification and endogenous growth. In this article we focus on the colonial period and investigate to what extent the formal sector of Bechuanaland Protectorate (colonial Botswana) had the potential to constitute the basis for a diversification of the dominating cattle economy away from its dependency…
From millet to tomatoes: Incremental intensification with high-value crops in contemporary Meru, Tanzania
In Meru, Tanzania, changing land/labour ratios have, for over a century, been the main driving force in a farm intensification process. The construction and expansion of irrigation systems, increased use of farm inputs and transfer from low- to high-value agricultural crops have enabled smallholders to improve their land productivity. Technological change has been accompanied by institutional change, primarily in the form of changes to property r…
Market institutions benefiting smallholders in contemporary Meru, Tanzania
Smallholders in developing countries can potentially benefit from access to local, regional, national and international markets as they intermediate between rural and urban demand for agricultural products and smallholder supply. This study investigates how smallholders in Meru, Tanzania make use of the various marketing channels that are available to them, and argues that the variety of potential marketing channels and easily accessible market i…
Registration of private interests in land in a community lands policy setting: An exploratory study in Meru district, Tanzania
Current Tanzanian land law offers registration of private interests in land in the form of Certificates of Customary Rights of Occupancy (CCROs) within a broader community lands approach. We conducted qualitative research on the issuance of CCROs along a mountain slope transect in Meru district in northeast Tanzania. This area features intensified smallholder agriculture that evolutionary theory suggests is well adapted for registration of privat…
Income inequality and export-oriented commercialization in colonial Africa: Evidence from six countries
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…
The history of African development: A textbook for a new generation of African students and teachers
The African Economic History Network (AEHN) is an academic initiative intended to foster communication, collaboration and research as well as teaching amongst scholars studying the longterm development of sub-Saharan Africa, from the pre
Regional evidence of smallholder-based growth in Zambia’s livestock sector
Diamonds or development? A structural assessment of Botswana's forty years of success
Due to its four decades of high long-term economic growth and democratic system, Botswana has been depicted as an exceptional success story in a region full of economic and political failures. In this article, a structural analysis is applied, and it is argued that Botswana's success should be understood as one of pre-modern growth without development. It is claimed that although the country may be a growth miracle, it has not yet experienced 'mo…
Farm Intensification and Milk Market Expansion in Meru, Tanzania
In Meru, Tanzania, technological and institutional change has turned milk into one of the most reliable and important sources of income for smallholder households. Decades of increased population density have caused land scarcity, leading smallholders to intensity their fanning methods and land use, including introducing stall-fed exotic breeds of dairy cows. Meanwhile, a growing urban and rural demand has resulted in a significant market expansi…
Assessing the role of property rights and legal empowerment in poverty reduction
Market institutions benefiting smallholders in contemporary Meru, Tanzania
Smallholders in developing countries can potentially benefit from access to local, regional, national and international markets as they intermediate between rural and urban demand for agricultural products and smallholder supply. This study investigates how smallholders in Meru, Tanzania make use of the various marketing channels that are available to them, and argues that the variety of potential marketing channels and easily accessible market i…
When water is from God: Formation of property rights governing communal irrigation furrows in Meru, Tanzania, c. 1890-2011
In Meru, Tanzania local initiatives were instrumental in establishing a gravity irrigation system in the 1890s. The original property rights institutions governing furrows were characterised by de facto communal ownership and management combined with private temporary user rights. Over the last 12 decades farming systems in Meru have experienced changing land/labour ratios, overall technological and institutional change as well as increased deman…
From millet to tomatoes: Incremental intensification with high-value crops in contemporary Meru, Tanzania
In Meru, Tanzania, changing land/labour ratios have, for over a century, been the main driving force in a farm intensification process. The construction and expansion of irrigation systems, increased use of farm inputs and transfer from low- to high-value agricultural crops have enabled smallholders to improve their land productivity. Technological change has been accompanied by institutional change, primarily in the form of changes to property r…
Potential for Diversification? The Role of the Formal Sector in Bechuanaland Protectorate's Economy, 1900–65
While Botswana since independence has experienced impressive economic growth and development this progress has not been accompanied by economic diversification and endogenous growth. In this article we focus on the colonial period and investigate to what extent the formal sector of Bechuanaland Protectorate (colonial Botswana) had the potential to constitute the basis for a diversification of the dominating cattle economy away from its dependency…
Endogenous Processes of Colonial Settlement. The Success and Failure of European Settler Farming in Sub-Saharan Africa
This paper comments on studies that aim to quantify the long-term economic effects of historical European settlement across the globe. We argue for the need to properly conceptualise «colonial settlement» as an endogenous development process shaped by the interaction between prospective settlers and indigenous peoples. We conduct three comparative case studies in West, East and Southern Africa, showing that the «success» or «failure» of colonial …
Pro-poor agricultural growth – Inclusion or differentiation? Village level perspectives from Zambia
Long-term trends in economic inequality: Lessons from colonial Botswana, 1921-74
This article contributes to the growing literature on colonial legacies influencing long-term development. It focuses on Botswana, a case where the post-independence diamond-led economy has been considered an economic success story, despite its high levels of inequality. Here it is argued that this pathway of rapid resource-driven growth combined with increasing socio-economic inequality had already started during the time of the colonial cattle …
Botswana – A Modern Economic History
An Economic History of Development in sub-Saharan Africa: Economic Transformations and Political Changes
Regional evidence of smallholder-based growth in Zambia’s livestock sector
Registration of private interests in land in a community lands policy setting: An exploratory study in Meru district, Tanzania
Current Tanzanian land law offers registration of private interests in land in the form of Certificates of Customary Rights of Occupancy (CCROs) within a broader community lands approach. We conducted qualitative research on the issuance of CCROs along a mountain slope transect in Meru district in northeast Tanzania. This area features intensified smallholder agriculture that evolutionary theory suggests is well adapted for registration of privat…
Tax bargaining, fiscal contracts, and fiscal capacity in Ghana: A long-term perspective
Many Sub-Saharan African countries are unable to generate sufficient tax revenues for public purposes. While it is widely accepted that governments’ ability to tax is shaped by politics, the precise mechanisms through which this relationship takes place in practice remain elusive. Based on a historical analysis of four major tax reforms in Ghana from the 1850s to the late 1990s, this article captures the various ways in which taxpayers negotiate …
The history of African development: A textbook for a new generation of African students and teachers
The African Economic History Network (AEHN) is an academic initiative intended to foster communication, collaboration and research as well as teaching amongst scholars studying the longterm development of sub-Saharan Africa, from the pre
Income inequality and export-oriented commercialization in colonial Africa: Evidence from six countries
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…
Rural Capitalists and Development in Colonial Africa: A Comparative Analysis
This paper explores the emergence and role of rural capitalists in colonial Sub‐Saharan Africa by comparing three peasant‐based economies: Bechuanaland, the Gold Coast and Tanganyika. Using social tables, we estimate the population and income shares of better earning agricultural producers and assess their impact on rural inequality and development. We find that rural capitalists in each colony adapted their economic strategies to local ecologica…
Economics (15 works) · Geography (13 works) · Business (9 works) · Political science (9 works) · Agriculture (8 works) · Development economics (8 works) · Economic growth (8 works) · Agricultural Innovations and Practices (6 works) · Law (6 works) · Colonialism (5 works)