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Pre-colonial Ethnic Institutions and Contemporary African Development

Elias Papaioannou and Stelios Michalopoulos

No 9068, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: We investigate the role of deeply-rooted pre-colonial ethnic institutions in shaping comparative regional development within African countries. We combine information on the spatial distribution of ethnicities before colonization with regional variation in contemporary economic performance, as proxied by satellite images of light density at night. We document a strong association between pre-colonial ethnic political centralization and regional development. This pattern is not driven by differences in local geographic features or by other observable ethnic-specific cultural and economic variables. The strong positive association between pre-colonial political complexity and contemporary development also holds within pairs of adjacent ethnic homelands with different legacies of pre-colonial political institutions.

Keywords: Africa; Development; Ethnicities; Institutions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N17 O10 O40 O43 Z10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr and nep-his
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (20)

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Journal Article: Pre‐Colonial Ethnic Institutions and Contemporary African Development (2013) Downloads
Working Paper: Pre-colonial Ethnic Institutions and Contemporary African Development (2012) Downloads
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