Divide and Rule or the Rule of the Divided? Evidence from Africa

60 Pages Posted: 29 Nov 2010

See all articles by Stelios Michalopoulos

Stelios Michalopoulos

Brown University - Department of Economics; Brown University

Elias Papaioannou

Dartmouth College - Department of Economics

Multiple version iconThere are 3 versions of this paper

Date Written: October 2010

Abstract

We investigate jointly the importance of contemporary country-level institutional structures and local ethnicity-specific pre-colonial institutions in shaping comparative regional development in Africa. We utilize information on the spatial distribution of African ethnicities before colonization and exploit within ethnicity (across countries) and within-country (across ethnicities) regional variation in economic performance, as proxied by satellite light density at night. The fact that political boundaries across the African landscape partitioned ethnic groups in different countries, thus subjecting identical cultures to different country-level institutions, offers a regression discontinuity framework. After identifying the partitioned ethnicities we document a positive cross-sectional association between national institutions and regional economic development. However, our ethnicity fixed-effects specifications show that differences in countrywide institutional arrangements do not explain differences in regional economic performance within ethnic groups. In contrast, we document that local ethnic traits proxied by tribal pre-colonial political institutions and class stratification exert even today a significant effect on regional development. The positive within country effect of pre-colonial institutions also obtains in regions of partitioned ethnicities along the national boundaries.

Keywords: Africa, borders, development, ethnicities, institutions

JEL Classification: N17, O10, O40, O43, Z10

Suggested Citation

Michalopoulos, Stelios and Papaioannou, Elias, Divide and Rule or the Rule of the Divided? Evidence from Africa (October 2010). CEPR Discussion Paper No. DP8088, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1714860

Stelios Michalopoulos (Contact Author)

Brown University - Department of Economics ( email )

64 Waterman Street
Providence, RI 02912
United States

HOME PAGE: http://https://sites.google.com/site/steliosecon/

Brown University ( email )

Box 1860
Providence, RI 02912
United States

Elias Papaioannou

Dartmouth College - Department of Economics ( email )

Hanover, NH 03755
United States

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