ABSTRACT In this paper, I discuss the main legacies of colonialism in current societies under the lens of early institutions and the role of elites. I address to what extent institutions contribute to understanding how colonialism shapes the present of modern societies. For this purpose, I heavily focus on historical conditions, to understand how natural resources, colonial inequality, and national elites set paths of global inequality and created long‐term trajectories that persist today. I introduce the institutionalist approach, in which issues such as natural endowments, property rights, the role of elites, and colonization modes are deeply analyzed. I focus on conceptual debates and methods used to explain long‐run inequality and the persistence of rent‐seeking elites in poor countries, who have either hindered or postponed redistributive policies and thrive at the expense of most of the population.
Álvaro Germán Torres Mora (Sun,) studied this question.