Is colonialism history? The declining impact of colonial legacies on African institutional and economic development

Robbert Maseland

doi:10.1017/s1744137417000315

Abstract

AbstractThis paper investigates the claim that colonial history has left an enduring imprint on Africa's institutional and economic development. The literature following Acemoglu, Johnson and Robinson (2001) and Sokoloff and Engerman (2000) maintains that different types of colonialism affected the institutional environment differently, and that path-dependence subsequently ensures that these institutional differences and their impact on economic performance are persistent over time. By tracing the impact of colonial institutions on contemporary institutions over time, I show that – in contrast to claims in this literature – the relevance of colonial legacies to institutional quality and to per capita income is rapidly disappearing in Africa. Differences in institutional quality or income are explained less and less by colonial legacy, while there is some evidence that precolonial social and geographical circumstances are becoming more important. I conclude that while colonialism has affected African institutional and economic development significantly, this impact is not persistent. Rather, the evidence suggests that colonialism has created a large but very temporary institutional shock, after which a long-run equilibrium is being restored.

Highlights

That it has been firmly established that institutions matter in development, the literature has increasingly focused on the question of where ‘good’ institutions come from
The literature following Acemoglu, Johnson and Robinson (2001) and Sokoloff and Engerman (2000) maintains that different types of colonialism affected the institutional environment differently, and that path-dependence subsequently ensures that these institutional differences and their impact on economic performance are persistent over time
Robustness checks To what extent are the results presented far dependent on the specification of the models and choice of indicators? Figures 4 and 5 address this question, presenting the results of a series of robustness checks for effects of the British Empire dimension, the duration dimension and the settlers dimension of colonial legacy on institutional quality (Figure 4) and per capita income (Figure 5)

Summary

Introduction

That it has been firmly established that institutions matter in development, the literature has increasingly focused on the question of where ‘good’ institutions come from. In spite of extensive evidence that history matters in current institutions (Nunn, 2014), the literature offers few insights into the degree of persistence of historically established institutions Literature in this area is crosssectional, relating institutional and economic outcomes today to determinants such as colonial history (Acemoglu et al, 2001; Bertocchi and Canova, 2002; Dell, 2010). Star-performers like Botswana or Mauritius provide a stark contrast with places like Congo Kinshasa or Madagascar, which are plagued by a post-colonial history of predatory regimes, repression and violence If part of this discrepancy in performance can be explained by differences in colonial history and resulting institutional quality (Robinson et al, 2003; Subramanian, 2013) it is important to know whether we can expect these effects to persist or whether they are likely to disappear in the near future. I conclude that colonial history has mattered, but it is increasingly a thing of the past

Background

Results

Conclusion