The Long-Term Effects of the Printing Press in Sub-Saharan Africa

Cagé, Julia; Rueda, Valeria

The Long-Term Effects of the Printing Press in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract: This article investigates the long-term consequences of the printing press in the 19th century sub-Saharan Africa on social capital nowadays. Protestant missionaries were the first to import the printing press and to allow the indigenous population to use it. We build a new geocoded dataset locating Protestant missions in 1903. This dataset includes, for each mission station, the geographic location and its characteristics, as well as the printing-, educational-, and health-related investments undertaken by the mission. We show that, within regions close to missions, proximity to a printing press is associated with higher newspaper readership, trust, education, and political participation.

Keywords: Printing press; Sub-Saharian Africa (19th Century) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-07
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Published in American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2016, 8 (3), pp.69-99. ⟨10.1257/app.20140379⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03571242

DOI: 10.1257/app.20140379

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