Julius Agbor Agbor
- University : University of Cape Town
- Department : School of Economics
- Country : South Africa
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Main research topics :
- Economic Institutions and Performance
- Institutional Change and Evolution
Representative publications : please login to update it
This paper investigates the channels through which colonial origin affects economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa. Recent cross country empirical evidence suggests that colonial origin matters for a country's subsequent post colonial growth experience. In particular, it is claimed that on average, former British colonies have grown faster than former French colonies. Limiting my sample to 38 sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries, my findings show that colonial origin matters for growth in SSA and its likely transmission mechanisms are human capital and trade openness depending on which colonial origin we consider. For instance, British former colonies have performed better than French former colonies because of superior educational attainment levels, while trade openness matters for growth if the country is a former Portuguese or Belgian colony. The contribution of the study is in simultaneously exploring several feasible transmission channels between colonial origin and growth, which to the best of my knowledge, is yet to be explored in the literature. This approach has enabled me introduce some nuance into the debate.
Keywords: Colonial Origin, Human Capital, Institutions, Hausman-Taylor, sub-Saharan Africa
