Development at the border : a study of national integration in post-colonial West Africa
Pre-print, Working paper: In Africa, boundaries delineated during the colonial era now divide young in-dependent states. By applying regression discontinuity designs to a large set of surveys covering the 1986-2001 period, this paper identities many large and significant jumps in welfare at the borders between five West-African countries around Cote d'Ivoire. Border discontinuities mirror the differences between country averages with respect to household income, connection to utilities and education. Country of residence often makes a difference, even if distance to capital city has some attenuating power. The results are consistent with a national integration process that is underway but not yet achieved.
Author(s)
Denis Cogneau, Sandrine Mesplé-Somps, Gilles Spielvogel
Date of publication
- 2010
Keywords JEL
Keywords
- Institutions
- Africa
- Geography
Internal reference
- G-MonD Working Paper n°15
URL of the HAL notice
Version
- 1