Colonial Institutions, Commodity Booms, and the Diffusion of Elementary Education in Brazil, 1889-1930

Research assistance for this paper was ably provided by Jenna Bernhardson, Diego Galeano, and Carlos L. Góes. We want to thank the comments and helpful suggestions of Paul Rhode and the anonymous referees of this journal. We benefited from comments on earlier drafts by Ran Abramitsky, Dan Bogart, Carlos Capistrán, Eric Chaney, Karen Clay, Rafel Di Tella, Catherine Duggan, Stan Engerman, Felipe T. Fernandes, Cláudio Ferraz, Mary Hansen, Eric Hilt, Richard Hornbeck, Lakshmi Iyer, Joseph L. Love, Ricardo Madeira, Robert Margo, Noel Maurer, João Manuel P. de Mello, David Moss, Steve Nafziger, Joana Naritomi, Tom Nicholas, Nathan Nunn, Ian Read, Eustáquio Reis, Rodrigo Soares, Peter Temin, John Wallis, Jeff Williamson, and participants in seminars at Harvard University, Harvard Business School, Stanford University, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, USP and Insper in Sao Paulo, PUC and FGV in Rio de Janeiro, and CIDE and Banco de México in Mexico City. We also thank commentators and participants at the ASSA, EHA, Cliometrics, and CLADE-II conferences. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.