pre-colonial ethnic institutions and contemporary african development

8/17/2019 Pre-colonial Ethnic Institutions and Contemporary African Development

1/31

PRE-COLONIAL ETHNICINSTITUTIONS ANDCONTEMPORARY

AFRICANDEVELOPMENT

STELIOS MICHALOPOULOS AND ELIAS PAPAIOANNOUEconometrica, Vol. 81, No. 1, January 2013, 113 – 152

LluisAragonésFerri


2/31

Contents

1. Literature Review2. Data3. Ethnic Homeland

Analysis4. Pixel-Level Analysis5. Conclusion


3/31

1. Literature Review


4/31

Ethnic Institutions: Past & Present

▪ Herbst (2000), Europeans hadlimited impact on local political

structures because colonizationlimited in timing & location.

▪ Mamdani (1996), colonizers inseveral occasions strengthenedtribal chiefs via indirect rule.

▪ Englebert (2009), eve of Africanindependence, failure of somecountries limiting the role ofethnic institutions, as lack ofnational government to provide

public goods.

Literature Review

Institutional origins of Africanunderdevelopment

▪ Acemoglu, Johnson, and

Robinson (2001, 2002) and LaPorta, de Silanes, Shleifer, andVishny (1997, 1998): empiricalimpact of colonization incomparative development effect oncontractual institutions and

property rights protection in Africa.

▪ Herbst (2000): role of deeplyrooted, ethnic institutionalcharacteristics.


5/31

Channels through which ethnicinstitutions shape contemporaryeconomic activity.

▪

Diamond (1997) and Acemogluand Robinson (2012), study howethnic groups forming largestates organized bureaucracies.

▪ Acemoglu and Robinson (2012),

Tribal societies with strongpolitical institutions moresuccessful obtaining concessionsfrom colonial powers & nationalgovernments afterindependence.

Literature Review

Importance of ethnic institutions

Baldwin (2010), ethnic localchiefs’ community support andpopularity.

Glennerster, Miguel, andRothenberg (2010), Acemoglu,Reed, and Robinson (2012), Inmany countries, Local leaders

collect taxes & provide basicpublic goods.


6/31

2. Data


7/31

Data on the locationof historical ethnichomelands

▪ George Peter Murdock’s (1959)ethnolinguistic map (Spatial distributionof ethnicities across Africa at beginningof European colonization mid/late 19thcentury).

▫ 843 tribal areas (levels 7-8 ofEthnologue’s (2005) language familytree).▫ Nun & Wantcheckon (2011) usingindividual data Afrobarometer, showed

0.55 correlation between location of therespondents (2005) & historical homelandof their ethnicity.

▪ This study intersect Murdock’sethnolinguistic map with 2000 DigitalChart of the World for contemporary

national boundaries.


8/31

Ethnic InstitutionalTraits

▪ Murdock (1967) produced anEthnographic Atlas, coding aprx. 60variables (cultural, geographical &economic characteristics) of 1270ethnicities in the world.▪ Clustering into 96 ethnolinguisticfamilies.

▪ Murdock’s (1967) ”JurisdictionalHierarchy index”:

▫0: stateless societies▫ 1: Petty chiefdoms▫ 2: Paramount chiefdoms.▫ 3 & 4: Pre-colonial states.


9/31

Satellite LightDensity at Night

▪ Use satellite light density at night (proxy oflocal economic activity), from the DefenseMeteorological Satellite Program’s OperationalLinescan System. Capturing lights from humansettlements, fires, gas flares, lighting & aurora.▪Construct average light density per for2007 & 2008.

▫ Henderson, Storeygard, and Weil (2012) andprevious works (e.g., Elvidge, Baugh, Kihn,Kroehl, and Davis (1997), Doll, Muller, andMorley (2006)). The use of luminosity data is as a

proxy for development, showing that light densityat night is a robust proxy of economic activity.▫ Even Chen and Nordhaus (2011), shortcomings(saturation and blooming), not big problem inAfrica.


10/31

Cross-validation: SatelliteLight Density at Night /Development

▪ 1st) Explore within country variation.

▪ 2nd) Examined relationship between log lightdensity & economic performance using micro-level data from Demographic and HealthSurveys (DHS)(Composite wealth index).

▪ 3rd) Derive average wealth index acrosshouseholds and associate it with light density ofeach DHS area, radius (10km). Correlation 0.7.


11/31

3. Ethnic HomelandAnalysis


12/31

Empirical framework

▪ Relationship between pre-colonial ethnic institutions and developmentacross ethnic homelands. Variants of this form:

▪, = + + + , + , + , Where:

▫,: Level of economic activity in homeland of ethnic group I, country c (proxiedby light density at night).

▸Shortcomings: as distribution of luminosity across ethnic homelands not

normal.▸, ≡ ln(0.01 + ℎ , ) For use of all observations.

▸, ≡ ln(ℎ ,) Ignoring unlit areas.

▫: Country fixed effects.▫: Local ethnic institutions (degree of jurisdictional hierarchy).

▫, = ln( ), likely endogenous to ethnic institutional

development. (

, ,

) ≠ 0

▫ ,: Set of conditioning variables at ethnic-country level. Geography and otherfactors. As land endowments (elevation and area under water), ecologicalfeatures (malaria stability index, land suitability for agriculture), naturalresources (diamond mines & petroleum fields) and location ethnic area within acountry (distance of centroid of each ethnicity I in country c from capital,national border and nearest sea coast, measuring impact of colonization).


13/31

Annex A.1


14/31

Table II (Preliminary Evidence)

, ≡ ln(0.01 + ℎ , )


15/31

Table III (Benchmark Fixed Effects)

,≡ ( ,).


16/31

Table IVA ) , ≡ ln 0.01 + ℎ ,

) , ≡ + + , + , + ,

) , ≡ + + + ,+ ,

+ ,


17/31

4. Pixel-Level Analysis


18/31

Advantages PixelLevel

▪ The unit of analysis: pixel of 12.5km x 12.5km. Exclude pixels with 0population through Probit Linear model. Advantages pixel level:

▫ 1. Can condition on geography, natural resources & the disease environmentat a finer level.▫ 2. Dependent variable=indicator for lit pixels (not concern on nonlinear nature

of luminosity).


19/31

Empirical framework

▪ ,, = + + + ,, + ,, + , + ,,

▪ Same specifications, but reduction in some controls to a pixel level.

▪ ,, : Other controls at pixel level, p.

T bl V


20/31

Table V,, = + + + ,, + ,,

+ , + ,,


21/31

Contiguous EthnicHomeland Analysis

▪ One may still be worried that unobservable local geographic feature isdriving the results:

▫ Solution: focus on contiguous ethnicities with a different degree of pre-colonial political centralization in same country.

▪ Specification:

▪ ,(), = , + + ,, + ,, + ,(), Not X

Table VI Validation


22/31

Table VI. Validation

,, = , + + ,(),


23/31

Further Evidence

▪ To further assuage concerns that some local unobserved geographicfeature is driving the results ⇒ analysis to pixels close to ethnic boundary.(Similar to regression discontinuity).

▪ Procedure: Estimation in areas close to ethnic boundaries, excludingpixels that fall within 25km or 50km from each side of border. Within

adjacent ethnic homelands with different pre-colonial political institutionsin same country.

Table VIII Panel A


24/31

Table VIII – Panel A

,(), = + ,(),

Table VIII Panel B


25/31

Table VIII – Panel B

,(), = , + + ,, + + ,, + ,(),


26/31

▪ Figure 5(B), excluding 25km ateach side of the ethnic border,differences in pixel-level lightdensity become significant.

DiscontinuityAnalysisVisualization

▪ Figure 5(A), including boundarypixels, differences are insignificantexactly at the ethnic border.


27/31

Conclusion

▪ Combination of data on spatial distribution and local institutions ofAfrican ethnicities (colonization time), with satellite images of light densityat night, to asses development.▪ Development higher in homelands of ethnicities with centralized,hierarchical, pre-colonial political institutions. (Not necessarily causation).▪ No effect of observable differences in geographic, ecological, natural

resource endowments, culture, occupational specialization or structure ofeconomic activity before colonization.▪ Positive link between pre-colonial ethnic political institutions andluminosity within pairs of ethnic homelands in same country.

▫ Future Research1. Move beyond country-level and ethnicities features.

2. Which ethnic institutional & cultural traits shape economic performance.3. Theory and empirics on how local ethnic institutions and cultural norms

emerge.4. Interplay between ethnic traits and national policies.


28/31

Thank you for your

attention!!Any questions?You can find me at [email protected]

Annex Table I


29/31

Annex Table I

Table III


30/31

Table III

Table VII


31/31

Table VII

pre-colonial ethnic institutions and contemporary african development

Documents