Development Interventions in Africa's Historical Borderlands: Evidence from Colonial Missions

Cermeño, Alexandra L., Alessandra Quintigliano and Jacob Weisdorf
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Cermeño, Alexandra L.: Lund University
Alessandra Quintigliano: Sapienza University of Rome
Jacob Weisdorf: Sapienza University of Rome, CAGE, & CEPR

CAGE Online Working Paper Series from Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE)

Abstract: Africa's historical borderlands are persistently associated with low levels of economic development. This paper examines how these regions respond to development interventions, analysing whether the long-run development advantage associated with colonial Christian missions persists near historical homeland borders. Combining georeferenced data on 3,365 pioneering mission stations with high-resolution satellite night-time luminosity data, we show that the positive association between proximity to missionary activity and contemporary economic development weakens sharply in these borderland areas. This result is robust across a wide range of specifications and is corroborated by evidence on household wealth and human capital from the Demographic and Health Surveys Program. Our findings suggest that the success of development initiatives in the historical borderlands reflects not only the interventions themselves, but also the institutional environments in which they were implemented.

Keywords: Africa; missionaries; development; borderlands; night-time luminosity; spatial analysis. JEL Classification: O1; F35; N10; N17 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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