The French Curse? On the Puzzling Economic Consequences of French Colonization

Andreas Bergh and Günther Fink

No 1234, Working Paper Series from Research Institute of Industrial Economics

Abstract: More than 50 years after independence, the majority of countries in Sub-Saharan Africa remain poor with limited rates of economic growth. One of the most striking features of economic development on the sub-Saharan subcontinent is the remarkably poor performance of French colonies relative to British ones. While British and French colonies had similar GDP per capita shortly after independence, their economic trajectories have increasingly diverged, with particularly large gaps in the post-2000 period. Neither measures of human capital, geography nor measures of institutional quality appear to explain this gap, suggesting that colonialism affected deeper societal factors that are crucial for economic growth but that are not captured in standard macroeconomic variables.

Keywords: Growth; Development; Colonies; Institutions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F54 F63 O43 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 16 pages
Date: 2018-09-25
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr, nep-gro and nep-his
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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