"Did Colonization Matter for Growth? An Empirical Exploration
into the Historical Causes of Africa's Underdevelopment"
BY: GRAZIELLA BERTOCCHI
Universita di Modena
FABIO CANOVA
Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Universita di Modena
Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)
Document: SSRN Electronic Library Document Delivery:
http://papers.ssrn.com/paper.taf?abstract_id=35765
Paper ID: Economics Working Paper 202
Contact: FABIO CANOVA
Email: Mailto:canova at upf.es
Postal: Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Ramon Trias Fargas, 25-27
Barcelona 08005 Spain
Phone: 34-3-542-2601
Fax: 34-3-542-1746
Co-Auth: GRAZIELLA BERTOCCHI
Email: Mailto:bertocchi at unimo.it
Postal: Universita di Modena
73 OVEST
viale Berengario 51
Modena I-41100 Italy
Prior appearance in SSRN's Economic and Business History
Hard Copy Paper Requests:
Please contact Raquel Garrido, Mailto:raquel.garrido at econ.upf.es
Postal: Department of Economics Universitat Pompeu Fabra Ramon
Trias Fargas, 25-27 08005 Barcelona, Spain. Phone:34-93 542 27
56. Fax:34-93 542 17 46.
ABSTRACT:
We investigate the impact of 20th--century European colonization
on growth in Africa. We find that in the 1960--88 period growth
has been faster for dependencies than for colonies; for British
and French colonies than for Portuguese, Belgian and Italian
ones; and for countries with less economic penetration during
the colonial period. On average, African growth accelerates
after decolonization. Proxies for colonial heritage add
explanatory power to growth regressions and make indicators for
human capital, political and ethnic instability lose
significance. Colonial variables capture the same effects of a
sub--Saharan dummy and reduce its significance when jointly
included in a cross sectional regression with 98 countries.
JEL Classification: E00, O40, Q32, N10