(De facto) Historical Ethnic Borders and Land Tenure in Sub-Saharan Africa

Emilio Depetris-Chauvin and Ömer Özak

No 2304, Departmental Working Papers from Southern Methodist University, Department of Economics

Abstract: We study the role of proximity to historical ethnic borders in determining individual land ownership in Sub-Saharan Africa. Following an instrumental variable strategy, we document that individuals have a lower likelihood of owning land near historical ethnic borders. In particular, the likelihood of owning land decreases by 15 percentage points, i.e., about 1/3 of the mean rate of landownership, for rural migrants who move from 57km (90th percentile) to 2 km (10th percentile) from the border. This result aligns with the view that competition for land is stronger and property rights are weaker close to historical ethnic borders in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Keywords: Borders; Conflict; Intra-State Conflict; Ethnic Borders; Non-Civil Conflict; Ethnic Conflict; Territory; Property Rights; Landownership; Population Pressure; Migration; Historical Homelands; Development; Africa; Economic Development; Economic Growth; Voronoi Diagram; Voronoi Tesselation; Thiessen Tesselation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D74 N57 O13 O17 O43 P48 Q15 Q34 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr, nep-agr and nep-gro
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Related works:
Journal Article: (De facto) historical ethnic borders and land tenure in Sub-Saharan Africa (2024)
Working Paper: (De Facto) Historical Ethnic Borders and Land Tenure in Sub-Saharan Africa (2023)
Working Paper: (De facto) Historical Ethnic Borders and Land Tenure in Sub-Saharan Africa (2023)
Working Paper: (De facto) Historical Ethnic Borders and Land Tenure in Sub-Saharan Africa (2023)
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