Institutions and development outcomes

HOW DOES COLONIAL ORIGIN MATTER FOR ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE IN SSA?

Recent literature suggests that colonial origins have important implications for the current patterns of growth and development. For example, Acemoglu and Robinson (2001) attribute much of the current economic performance of African economies to institutions, which were in turn shaped by colonial origins.

Agbor (this volume) explores the issue of the channel by which colonial origin has influenced economic performance. The author finds that it is not so much the initial conditions at independence, which the extant literature seems to emphasize, but more so the legacy of education that appears to have led Anglophone countries to economically outperform their Francophone counterparts. An important implication of this finding is that the educational systems of both groups of countries should be examined in order to distil their productivityenhancing attributes. Future educational policies in African countries could then be more appropriately informed.