Without serfdom, better outcomes
The y-axis plots coefficients that indicate how much an increase in the share of serfs — a measure of how much emancipation occurred in a region— affected several outcomes: grain productivity relative to 1795-1829 levels, industrial output relative to 1795, and draftees' height (a proxy for nutrition) relative to 1853-1854 birth cohorts. Moving from the lowest to the highest tercile of number of serfs in a region increased grain productivity by 19.2 percent after abolition relative to its 1858 level.
Source: Author data