Week 9 - African Growth Since 1960

Question 1

For Nunn (2008)
What is research focus
What is research design
What is result
What is interpretation

Answer 1

Nunn (2008)
Focus:
- Can Africa’s current underdevelopment be explained by the slave trade between 1400-1900?

Research design
- Creates a dataset to calculate slave exports per country (1400-1900) using shipping records from over 34,000 voyages.
- Uses IV of distance to major slave port hubs.
- Then regress log GDP per capita on the exogenous part of slave exports

Results:
Robust relationship between slaves taken and economic outcomes
With IV a 1SD increase in slave exports reduces income by 50%

Question 2

For Nunn (2011)
What is research focus
What is research design
What is result
What is interpretation

Answer 2

Nunn (2011)
Research Question:
- Does ancestral slave trade exposure impact trust levels today
Research design:
- Use 2005 Afrobarometer survey which asks how much people trust from 0-3
- They map each person’s ethnicities to a homeland
- Use IV of distance of ancestors homeland to slave ports
Results:
- Highly negative significant relationship between exports and levels of trust
- A 1SD increase in slave exports decreases trust by -0.2

Question 3

For AJR (2001)
What is research focus
What is research design
What is result
What is interpretation

Answer 3

Acemoglu, Robinson and Johnson (2001)
Research focus
- Paper explains if underdevelopment in Africa is due to the colonial institutions that were created – particularly those focused on resource extraction over long term development
o They claim that colonisers set up extractive institutions in sub-Saharan Africa as there was a high incidence of diseases like Malaria
o Therefore, they set up extractive institutions which extracted resources.
o These institutions persisted
Research design:
- Use the logic that where European settler mortality was higher they set up more extractive institutions
- Data
o Includes
o Use GDP per capita (1995)
o Uses log of European settler mortality
o Uses IV 2SLS regression
Results:
o Africa dummy loses significance when you control for institutions
o Institutions can explain 75% of differences in income in 1995
o Institutions are also persistent

Question 4

For Easterly and Levine (1997)
What is research focus
What is research design
What is result
What is interpretation

Answer 4

Research focus:
- Africa’s ethnic fragmentation is one of the main reasons behind its poor policies and institutions which have in turned supressed growth.
Research design
- Step 1: Show that Africa has grown much slower than other countries since 1960
- Step 2: They measure ETHNIC which is the chance of ethnolinguistic fractionalization – it is linked with worse policy outcomes
o Using Soviet ethnographic maps (1960)
Results:
- Ethnic fractionalisation is significantly negatively correlated with growth
- 14/15 of the most ethnically diverse countries are in Africa
- A 0.1% increase in ethnic fractionalization decreases GDP by 0.23%
- Statistically significant impact on policy outcomes like provision of public goods
- High ethnic diversity is closely associated with low schooling, underdeveloped financial systems, distorted foreign exchange markets, and insufficient infrastructure.
- A 1 point increase in ethnic is associated with nearly a 1 log drop in school attainment.

Question 5

For Aslan (2015)
What is research focus
What is research design
What is result
What is interpretation

Answer 5

Aslan (2015) – The effect of the Tse Tse fly
Research question:
- Did the Tse Tse fly, a disease vector specific to Africa disrupt agricultural and transport which hindered political centralisation and economic development
- Did the Tse Tse fly have persistent effects
Research Design:
- Creates a TSI index using climate modelling, based on where the Tse Tse fly could survive
- Then matches TSI score to outcomes by ethnic groups
Results:
- Finds a statistically significant relationship between Tse Tse fly and pre-colonial outcomes
- A 1 SD increase TSI is associated with:
o A 22% drop in live stock use – no animals for transport or fertiliser
o 8% political centralisation – central system require food surplus
o 10% more use in slavery – no pack animals you need human slaves

Interpretation :
Tse Tse fly was a strong hinderance to African growth, underpinning the historical explanation for Africa’s slow growth as it was exclusive to Africa.

Question 6

For Sachs (2001)
What is research focus
What is research design
What is result
What is interpretation

Answer 6

Sachs (2001)
Research question:
- how does climate impact economic outcomes?
Research design:
- Uses GIS spatial mapping tools to look at differences in temperatures and economic outcomes
- Also look at coastal access and impact on GNP
Results:
- 57% of World GNP comes from temperate zones and not extreme temperatures
- The burden of infectious disease is higher in temperate zones
- Also in Africa due to ruggedness access to coastal areas is more difficult which increases the cost.

Question 7

For Diamond (1998)
What is research focus
What is research design
What is result
What is interpretation

Answer 7

Africa was disadvantaged in a plethora of geographic ways:
- Africa had less domesticable animals
- North-South axis that Africa was on it was harder for the diffusion of technology
- Disease burden was higher in Africa

Question 8

For Sachs and Bloom (1998)
What is research focus
What is research design
What is result
What is interpretation

Answer 8

Research:
- Provides geographical, demographic and health reasons for Africa’s backwardness.
Research design:
- Use a cross country regression model based on a Solow growth model with 77 countries – convergence model
- They use explanatory variables that explain geography
Results:
- When geography and demographic variables are included Africa dummy becomes statistically significant
- Suggests that Africa’s backwardness is largely due to ecological and geographic reasons
Interpretation:
- They argue that Africa’s poor development is structural
o Aspects like:
 High disease burden
 Young populations
 Tropical climate

Question 9

For Lowes and Montero (2021)
What is research focus
What is research design
What is result
What is interpretation

Answer 9

• Question if the legacy of French colonial medical campaigns decrease trust in medicine today.
• Research design:
  Datset:
  Afrobarometer survey and DHS data.

Outcome variable of refusal of non-invasive medical procedure today

IV approach interaction term between Cassava suitability X distance from capital

• 15 years exposure reduces compliance by 5.1%

Question 10

What are the required readings for Africa?

Answer 10

• Nunn (2008)
• M&P (2020)
• Aslan (2015)

Question 11

For Michalapolous and Pappanaiou (2016)
What is research focus
What is research design
What is result
What is interpretation

Question 12

What does Michalaplous and Pappanaiou say?

Answer 12

Synthesise main literature

Question 13

What does M&P (2016) say?

Answer 13

• Looks at the long-term impacts of partionining of Africa
• Uses Murdoch ethnographic Atlas
• Quasi experiment

Results:
Conflcit 57% higher across borders
Educationl and Work outcomes are lower