Colonialism and Economic Development in Africa

Leander Heldring and James Robinson

No 18566, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: In this paper we evaluate the impact of colonialism on development in Sub-Saharan Africa. In the world context, colonialism had very heterogeneous effects, operating through many mechanisms, sometimes encouraging development sometimes retarding it. In the African case, however, this heterogeneity is muted, making an assessment of the average effect more interesting. We emphasize that to draw conclusions it is necessary not just to know what actually happened to development during the colonial period, but also to take a view on what might have happened without colonialism and also to take into account the legacy of colonialism. We argue that in the light of plausible counter-factuals, colonialism probably had a uniformly negative effect on development in Africa. To develop this claim we distinguish between three sorts of colonies: (1) those which coincided with a pre-colonial centralized state, (2) those of white settlement, (3) the rest. Each have distinct performance within the colonial period, different counter-factuals and varied legacies.

JEL-codes: N37 N47 O55 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr, nep-dev and nep-his
Note: DAE
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (18)

Published as Leander Heldring and James Robinson. 2018. "Colonialism and Economic Development in Africa," in Carol Lancaster and Nicolas Van de Walle (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the Politics of Development, Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, Part III, 295-327.

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