PRE-COLONIAL ETHNIC INSTITUTIONS AND CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Michalopoulos, Stelios; Papaioannou, Elias
• 署名单位: Brown University; University of London; London Business School
• 刊物名称: ECONOMETRICA
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0012-9682
• DOI: 10.3982/ECTA9613
• 发表日期: 2013
• 页码: 113-152
• 关键词: origins; HISTORY; STATES

摘要

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.