Economic Growth in a Cross‐section of Nonindustrial Countries: Does Colonial Heritage Matter for Africa? |
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Authors: | Gregory N Price |
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Institution: | North Carolina A &T State University, Greensboro, USA;  |
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Abstract: | The paper investigates the effects of Sub‐Saharan African colonial heritage on economic growth in a sample of nonindustrial countries. An empirical Solow growth model is specified in a way that allows an examination of whether or not growth in Sub‐Saharan Africa reflects a legacy of extractive colonialization strategies, motivated by a hostile disease environment that resulted in extractive growth‐retarding institutions that persisted after independence. Parameter estimates suggest that the partial effects of extractive institutions engendered by a twentieth century colonial heritage account for approximately 30% of the growth gap between the former colonies in Sub‐Saharan Africa and other nonindustrial countries. |
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