Is Africa Different? Historical Conflict and State Development

Mark Dincecco (), James Fenske and Massimiliano Onorato
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Mark Dincecco: University of Michigan

No 8/2015, Working Papers from IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca

Abstract: We show that the consequences of historical warfare for state development differ for Sub-Saharan Africa. We identify the locations of more than 1,500 conflicts in Africa, Asia, and Europe from 1400 to 1799. We find that historical warfare predicts common-interest states defined by high fiscal capacity and low civil conflict across much of the OldWorld. For Sub-Saharan Africa, historical warfare predicts special-interest states defined by high fiscal capacity and high civil conflict. Our results offer new evidence about where and when "War makes states".

Keywords: Warfare; State development; Fiscal capacity; Civil conflict; Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C10 H20 N40 O55 P48 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 39
Date: 2015-08, Revised 2015-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev, nep-evo and nep-his
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Published in EIC working paper series

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http://eprints.imtlucca.it/2738/1/WP_2015_8.pdf First version, 2015 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Is Africa Different? Historical Conflict and State Development (2019)
Working Paper: Is Africa Different? Historical Conflict and State Development (2014)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ial:wpaper:8/2015

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