Journal article
State reach and development in Africa since the 1960s: new data and analysis
- Abstract:
- Prominent arguments hold that African states’ geography limits state capacity, impedes public service provision, and slows economic development. To test this argument, I collect comprehensive panel data on a proxy of local state capacity, travel times to national and regional capitals. These are computed on a yearly 5 × 5 km grid using time-varying data on roads and administrative units (1966–2016). I use these data to estimate the effect of changes in travel times to capitals on local education provision, infant mortality rates, and nightlight emissions. Within the same location, decreases in travel times to its capitals are robustly associated with improved development outcomes. The article advances the measurement of state capacity and contributes to understanding its effects on human welfare.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
Actions
Access Document
- Files:
-
-
(Preview, Accepted manuscript, pdf, 7.9MB, Terms of use)
-
- Publisher copy:
- 10.1017/psrm.2021.60
Authors
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
- Journal:
- Political Science Research and Methods More from this journal
- Volume:
- 11
- Issue:
- 3
- Pages:
- 663 - 672
- Publication date:
- 2021-11-10
- Acceptance date:
- 2021-07-07
- DOI:
- EISSN:
-
2049-8489
- ISSN:
-
2049-8470
- Language:
-
English
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
-
1210276
- Local pid:
-
pubs:1210276
- Deposit date:
-
2021-11-17
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Carl Müller-Crepon.
- Copyright date:
- 2021
- Rights statement:
- © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Political Science Association
- Notes:
- This is the accepted manuscript version of the article. The final version is available online from Cambridge University Press at: https://doi.org/10.1017/psrm.2021.60
If you are the owner of this record, you can report an update to it here: Report update to this record