Why, after 30 years of aid, were so many African countries no better off in the 1980s than they had been at independence? Why, indeed, were so many of them slipping back and earlier economic achievements being undermined?Concentrating on Sudan, the Poverty of Nations examined what had gone wrong...

Columbus's arrival in the New World triggered an unprecedented movement of people and crops across the Atlantic Ocean. We study an overlooked part of this Columbian Exchange: the effects of New World crops in Africa. Specifically, we test the hypothesis that the introduction of maize increased...

This paper uses cross-country panel data to estimate the agronomic inputs that lead to cereal yield improvements and the consequences for developing countries' processes of structural change. The results suggest a clear role for fertilizer, modern seeds and water in boosting yields. It then...

This study investigates the implications of foreign land deals in Africa with regards to per capita income. It employs data from World Development Indicators, World Governance Indicators and World Trade Indicators on key variables such as arable land per person, agricultural land as percentage...

Ethiopia is the second most populous country in Sub-Saharan Africa with a population of more than 110 million. With over 10 percent growth rate, the Ethiopian economy has been one of the fastest growing economies in the world over the last one and half decades. By any measure agriculture is the...

There are several theories linking land inequality with aspects of economic development. Empirical work on these theories has attempted to establish a relationship between land inequality and institutions, financial development, and education. This research, though, has relied on measures of...

From 2008 onwards, developing countries have seen a surge in acquisitions of large areas of agricultural land by international investors. If local farmers have secure property rights and services that support business are available, positive spillover from the acquisitions is expected to drive...

We explore the effect of historical ethnic borders on contemporary conflict in Africa. We document that both the intensive and extensive margins of contemporary conflict are higher close to historical ethnic borders. Exploiting variations across artificial regions within an ethnicity's...