We are grateful to Jan Vansina for his suggestions and advice. We have also benefitted greatly from many discussions with ABSTRACTIn this paper we evaluate the impact of colonialism on development in Sub-Saharan Africa. In the world context, colonialism had very heterogeneous effects, operating through many mechanisms, sometimes encouraging development sometimes retarding it. In the African case, however, this heterogeneity is muted, making an assessment of the average effect more interesting. We emphasize that to draw conclusions it is necessary not just to know what actually happened to development during the colonial period, but also to take a view on what might have happened without colonialism and also to take into account the legacy of colonialism. We argue that in the light of plausible counter-factuals, colonialism probably had a uniformly negative effect on development in Africa. To develop this claim we distinguish between three sorts of colonies: (1) those which coincided with a pre-colonial centralized state, (2) those of white settlement, (3) the rest. Each have distinct performance within the colonial period, different counter-factuals and varied legacies.
for valuable research assistance. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research. NBER working papers are circulated for discussion and comment purposes. They have not been peerreviewed or been subject to the review by the NBER Board of Directors that accompanies official NBER publications.
In this article, we evaluate the impact of colonialism on development in sub-Saharan Africa. In the world context, colonialism had very heterogeneous effects, operating through many mechanisms—sometimes encouraging development, sometimes retarding it. In the African case, however, this heterogeneity is muted, making an assessment of the average effect more interesting. To draw conclusions, it is necessary to know not just what actually happened to development during the colonial period but also what might have happened without colonialism and its legacy. In light of plausible counterfactuals, colonialism probably had a uniformly negative effect on development in Africa. To develop this claim, we distinguish between three sorts of colonies, each with a distinct performance within the cultural period, different counterfactuals, and varied legacies.
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