What was the economic impact of countries that heavily practiced slavery/indentured servitude and then abolished it?

Question

What was the economic impact of countries that heavily practiced slavery/indentured servitude and then abolished it?

In: Economics

Answer 1

The general belief today is that slavery is bad for the economy. The low cost of labor reduces the incentive to innovate which slows economic growth. Also, slaves aren’t very productive at all. They obviously have no incentive to work hard and were generally poorly educated and often unhealthy. Outlawing slavery should generally improve economic growth although it takes time to get these people integrated into society and can obviously cause social issues.