Historical Legacies and African Development

Abstract

As Africa's role on the global stage is rising, so does the need to understand the shadow of history on the continent's economy and polity. We discuss recent works that shed light on Africa's colonial and precolonial legacies. The emerging corpus is remarkably interdisciplinary. Archives, ethnographic materials, georeferenced censuses, surveys, and satellite imagery are some of the sources often combined to test influential conjectures put forward in African historiography. Exploiting within-country variation and employing credible, albeit mostly local, identification techniques, this recent literature has uncovered strong evidence of historical continuity as well as instances of rupture in the evolution of the African economy. The exposition proceeds in reverse chronological order. Starting from the colonial period, which has been linked to almost all of Africa's post-independence maladies, we first review works that uncover the lasting legacies of colonial investments in infrastructure and human capital and quantify the role of various extractive institutions, such as indirect rule and oppression associated with concessionary agreements. Second, we discuss the long-lasting impact of the "Scramble for Africa" which led to ethnic partitioning and the creation of artificial modern states. Third, we cover studies on the multi-faceted legacy of the slave trades. Fourth, we analyze the contemporary role of various precolonial, ethnic-specific, institutional and social traits, such as political centralization. We conclude by offering some thoughts on what we view as open questions.

The tangled historical roots of entrepreneurial growth aspirations

“…These contextual factors can also be important for EGA. For example, being landlocked implies a more difficult access to international markets (Michalopoulos & Papaioannou, 2018;Sowell, 2015), and therefore reduces the potential for exporting and engaging in global value chains, both of which may limit EGA. Alongside that, being natural resource-dependent (especially on a single mineral resource), may lead to concentrated rents, supporting oligarchic structures that limit the range of entrepreneurial opportunities for large sections of the society, again lowering HGAE (Mehlum, Moene, & Torvik, 2006).…”

“…Because many SSA countries were formed on the basis of the requirements of colonial administration rather than their ethnic or national identities, the ethnic characteristics of the population represents a second important contextual factor (Michalopoulos & Papaioannou, 2018). If a country is ethnically heterogeneous, this can create fragmentation of internal markets, including the labor market, and may also lead to discrimination by the dominant ethnic group (Khoury & Prasad, 2016;Michalopoulos & Papaioannou, 2018). In both cases, limits to entrepreneurial opportunities emerge, lowering EGA (Estrin et al, 2013).…”

“…Moreover, SSA has the youngest population in the world, with a population pyramid conducive to economic growth. 2 Despite this potential, the region has long faced fundamental challenges in its development process associated with geographical constraints as well as historical legacies (Collier, 2008;Michalopoulos & Papaioannou, 2018). Research on entrepreneurship in Africa is relatively fragmented (Acs, Szerb, & Jackson, 2013;Kiggundu, 2002;Kuada, 2015;Naudé & Havenga, 2005), and rarely addresses the historical legacies of the institutional environment.…”

Landmines and Spatial Development

“…Harari and La Ferrara (2018) show sizable spillovers between climate shocks and conflict. Michalopoulos and Papaioannou (2016a) show that conflict in Africa spreads from partitioned by the national border ethnic homelands to nearby regions.…”

Public Sector Growth in the British Cape Colony: Evidence From New Data on Expenditure and Foreign Debt, 1830‐1910

“…Herranz‐Loncan and Fourie (2018) find that Cape railways explain at least a quarter of the economic growth during the last few decades of the nineteenth century. Railways not only boosted growth; new evidence shows that these colonial infrastructures caused path‐dependent outcomes that continue today (Jedwab et al ., 2017; Michalopoulos and Papaioannou, 2018).…”