Ancestral Cultural Traits, Colonialism, and its Legacy

Marcello D’Amato () and Francesco Flaviano Russo ()
Additional contact information
Marcello D’Amato: University of Naples Federico II and CSEF, University Suor Orsola Benincasa, https://csef.it/people/marcello-damato/
Francesco Flaviano Russo: University of Naples Federico II and CSEF, https://csef.it/people/francesco-flaviano-russo/

CSEF Working Papers from Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Naples, Italy

Abstract: We explore whether and how the similarity of pre-existing cultural traits between ethnic groups in the former colonies and colonizers contributes to explain the legacies of colonization. We find higher levels of income per capita, and a lower probability of a “Reversal of Fortunes”, in the territories where the local population had more similar oral traditions to the colonizers and where the dispersion of this folklore similarity was smaller. Exploring the mechanisms, we find that more oral tradition similarity, and less dispersion, are associated with more similar (de iure) constitutions established at independence, a higher frequency of a direct colonial rule, more conversions to Christianity and better education.

Keywords: Colonial Relationship; Culture; Orality; Folklore Narratives; Historical Development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J15 Z10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-03-25
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.csef.it/WP/wp774.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sef:csefwp:774

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CSEF Working Papers from Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Naples, Italy Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Dr. Maria Carannante ().