The impact of precolonial political centralisation on local development: Ghana’s paradox

Mohammed Iddrisu Kambala

Oxford Development Studies, 2023, vol. 51, issue 2, 163-178

Abstract: I investigate the impact of precolonial political centralisation (PPC) on local development in Ghana. Accounting for the potential endogeneity associated with the emergence of political centralisation, I find that PPC has a strong negative impact on local development. Further, PPC does not significantly correlate with the provision of local public goods. These results are robust to a battery of sensitivity checks and a wealth of controls at a fine unit. Two mechanisms plausibly explain these findings. First, I show that past colonial public investments, which still significantly determine contemporary development outcomes in Ghana, disfavoured politically centralised regions. Second, I argue that in centralised areas colonial rule might have empowered despotic local patrons who served the interest of the colonial state at the expense of local development.

Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1080/13600818.2022.2115474

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