The legacy of historical conflict: evidence from Africa

Timothy Besley and Marta Reynal-Querol

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: This article exploits variation between and within countries to examine the legacy of recorded conflicts in Africa in the precolonial period between 1400 and 1700. There are three main findings. First, we show that historical conflict is correlated with a greater prevalence of postcolonial conflict. Second, historical conflict is correlated with lower levels of trust, a stronger sense of ethnic identity, and a weaker sense of national identity across countries. Third, historical conflict is negatively correlated with subsequent patterns of development looking at the pattern across grid cells within countries.

Keywords: conflict; trust; identity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N47 O55 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014-05-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem, nep-evo, nep-gro and nep-his
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (115)

Published in American Political Science Review, 2, May, 2014, 108(02), pp. 319-336. ISSN: 0003-0554

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http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/57125/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: The Legacy of Historical Conflict: Evidence from Africa (2014)
Working Paper: The Legacy of Historical Conflict Evidence from Africa (2012)
Working Paper: The Legacy of Historical Conflict: Evidence from Africa (2012)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:57125

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