Arbitrarily designed borders have been identified by a recent literature as an important reason why sub-Saharan Africa remains one of the poorest regions on the globe. Accordingly, border changes may be a way to promote growth on the African continent. In this paper, we study the effect of...

A recent literature suggests that arbitrarily designed administrative borders are an important reason why sub-Saharan Africa remains one of the least developed regions on the globe. Accordingly, administrative border reforms may be a way to promote growth on the African continent. In this paper,...

Development economists have found evidence that an abundance in natural resources hinders economic growth, contrary to conventional expectations. This finding is called the resource curse hypothesis. The major questions this paper addresses are: does the resource curse hypothesis apply to...

This paper is interested in explaining the causes of the simultaneous evolution between economic growth and informality. Using a large annual panel of African countries with a time series of 25 years, ours results show that when the corruption rate is above (below) a threshold of 1.3577,...

Chinese aid comes with few strings attached, allowing recipient country leaders to use it for domestic political purposes. The vulnerability of Chinese aid to political capture has prompted speculation that it may be economically ineffective, or even harmful. We test these claims by estimating...

Chinese aid comes with few strings attached, allowing recipient country leaders to use it for domestic political purposes. The vulnerability of Chinese aid to political capture has prompted speculation that it may be economically ineffective, or even harmful. We test these claims by estimating...

Arbitrarily designed borders have been identified by a recent literature as an important reason why sub-Saharan Africa remains one of the poorest regions on the globe. Accordingly, border changes may be a way to promote growth on the African continent. In this paper, we study the effect of...

This paper is interested in explaining the causes of the simultaneous evolution between economic growth and informality. Using a large annual panel of African countries with a time series of 25 years, ours results show that when the corruption rate is above (below) a threshold of 1.3577,...

We investigate the impacts infrastructure investment has on the historical persistence of mistrustwithin Africa. We combine geocoded Afrobarometer survey data with infrastructure projectsfinanced by the Chinese government and its agencies. We show that these projects' presence doesnot diminish...

This paper examines the relationship between FDI inflows and welfare improvement in North African countries. Using net per capita FDI inflows and the UNDP's HDI as the principal variables, our analyses confirm the positive and strongly significant relationship between net FDI inflows and welfare...