We investigate the role of national institutions on regional development in a novel framework. We exploit the fact that … correlation between formal national institutions and economic development has to be carefully interpreted. …

We investigate the role of deeply-rooted pre-colonial ethnic institutions in shaping comparative regional development … association between pre-colonial ethnic political centralization and regional development. This pattern is not driven by … positive association between pre-colonial political complexity and contemporary development also holds within pairs of adjacent …

We examine the link between pre-colonial statehood and contemporary regional African development, as reflected in …-country analysis reveals a strong positive correlation between pre-colonial political centralization and contemporary development (and …

these forces turned around in the region thereafter, including some modest industrial Catch-up. Finally, the paper …

shaping African development. First, using recent surveys from Sub-Saharan African countries, we document that individuals … a strong association between pre-colonial centralization and contemporary comparative development both across and within … countries. We also document that the strong link between pre-colonial political centralization and regional development -as …

start with the relation between development and rural-urban migration. Moving beyond the coarse rural-urban distinction, we … with development. As we discuss, these spatial dynamics often mask important differences across sectors. We then turn our … development, we draw on empirical evidence from both the historical evolution of today's developed economies and comparisons …

comparative development. We also show that ethnic inequality goes in tandem with lower levels development within countries. Using …