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Why former French sub-Saharan colonies do better economically than ex-British ones

Faculty and research

Published on July 26, 2023

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Why former French sub-Saharan colonies do better economically than ex-British ones

Does the colonial history of sub-Saharan African countries still play a role in their economic performance? Ioannis Bournakis (SKEMA Business School), Marian Rizov and Dimitris Christopoulos compared the performance of 35 of these countries over more than 40 years: those that inherited a French legal framework were more efficient than those that inherited a British legal framework.

​Do legal origins matter for African countries’ economic performance? Can the interplay between ethnic fragmentation and the legal system in Africa explain income per capita? These are two of the main questions we dealt with in our recent paper published in Economic Modelling.​

The above is an excerpt from the full article published on SKEMA's knowledge sharing website ThinkForward, read it all here​. ​​​​

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