-specific pre-colonial institutions in shaping comparative regional development in Africa. We utilize information on the spatial …

We examine the effect of malaria on economic development in Africa over the very long run. Using data on the prevalence … of the mutation that causes sickle cell disease we measure the impact of malaria on mortality in Africa prior to the …

effect on income. However, in Africa rugged terrain afforded protection to those being raided during the slave trades. Since … the slave trades retarded subsequent economic development, in Africa ruggedness has also had a historical indirect … for Africa the indirect positive effect dominates the direct negative effect. Looking within Africa, we also provide …

Africa and Latin America secured their independence from European colonial rule a century and half apart: most of Latin … America after 1820 and most of Africa after 1960. Despite the distance in time and space, they share important similarities … about a half-century (lost decades). The parallels suggest that Africa might be exiting from a period of post …

As Africa's role on the global stage is rising, so does the need to understand the shadow of history on the continent …'s economy and polity. We discuss recent works that shed light on Africa's colonial and precolonial legacies. The emerging corpus … Africa's post-independence maladies, we first review works that uncover the lasting legacies of colonial investments in …

Can part of Africa's current underdevelopment be explained by its slave trades? To explore this question, I use data … exported from each country during Africa's slave trades. I find a robust negative relationship between the number of slaves …

We show that much of Africa's recent growth and poverty reduction can be traced to a substantive decline in the share …

Africa's recent economic growth is at a historical high. The patterns associated with this growth appear to be quite … of Africa's growth. One thing is clear: the recent growth is not well understood. Against this background, we adapt Lewis …'s (1954) dual-economy model to the economies of Africa to better understand the role that the “in-between” sector as defined …

Using country- and region-level data, I investigate the effect of HIV/AIDS on fertility in Africa during 1985 …