Revisiting National Institutions and Subnational Development in Africa with New Nighttime Light Data

Soyoka Okamura, Yotaro Ueno, Toma Yamagoshi and Hisaki Kono

Discussion papers from Graduate School of Economics , Kyoto University

Abstract: We revisit the empirical investigation of the importance of national institutions for sub-regional economic development using more accurate nighttime light data. In contrast to the original study by Michalopoulos and Papaioannou (2014), we find that national institutions matter even after controlling for ethnic-homeland fixed effects, and even in areas far from the capital. This suggests that the spatial imprecision and blurring of nighttime light data attenuated the association between national institutions and economic activity in their analysis. Nevertheless, our analyses generally corroborate their argument, particularly regarding the role of the limited penetration of national institutions in African countries.

Keywords: Consistency; Nighttime lights; DMSP; VIIRS; national institutions. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N17 O10 O43 R12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 42
Date: 2024-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev and nep-ure
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kue:epaper:e-23-008

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