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African Time Travellers: What can we learn from 500 years of written accounts? (with Edward Kerby and Hanjo Odendaal)
Abstract: In this paper we study 500 years of African economic history using traveller accounts. We systematically collected 2,464 unique documents, of which 855 pass language and rigorous data quality requirements. Our final corpus of texts contains more than 230,000 pages. Analysing such a corpus is an insurmountable task for traditional historians and would probably take a lifetime’s work. Applying modern day computational linguistic techniques such as a structural topic model approach (STM) in combination with domain knowledge of African economic history, we analyse how first hand accounts (topics) evolve across space, time and traveller occupations. Apart from obvious accounts of climate, geography and zoology, we find topics around imperialism, diplomacy, conflict, trade/commerce, health/medicine, evangelization and many more topics of interest to scholarship. We find that some topics follow notable epochs defined by underlying relevance and that travellers’ occupational backgrounds influence the narratives in their writing. Many topics exhibit good temporal and spatial coverage, and a large variation in occupational backgrounds adding different perspectives to a topic. This makes the large body of written accounts a promising source to systemically shed new light on some of Africa’s precolonial past.

Community Effects of Electrification: Evidence from Burkina Faso’s Grid Extension (with Maika Schmidt)
Abstract: Using true and pseudo panel data of localities and households, we study the effects of Burkina Faso’s large scale electricity grid expansion 2008-2017. We show that the timing of electrification was driven by engineering constraints and thus largely exogenous. We investigate the effects of electrification using a staggered difference-in-differences (DiD) approach, where not-yet treated communities serve as the control group. Despite low uptake of electricity at the household level, we find strong positive effects on luminosity at the community level. In terms of public goods provision, we find an increase in infant vaccination rates, electrified schools and drinking water provision. At the household level, we find increases in the ownership of electric appliances as well as an increase in bank patronage. Importantly, effects spill over to households that do not have an electricity connection.

Ethnic Homogenization and Public Goods: Evidence from Kenya’s Land Reform Program (with Juliette Crespin-Boucaud and Catherine Boone)
Abstract: Little is known about the effects of ethnic homogenization policies despite being an obvious policy option, if not an ethical one, based on the literature that links ethnic fractionalization to negative development outcomes. In this paper, we examine the effects of ethnic homogenization on public good provision using a natural experiment that took place in Kenya. We study a large-scale land reform program that led to a significant reduction in ethnic diversity, the settlement schemes program. Using a novel dataset about the precise location of program area boundaries (Lukalo et al., 2019) that we combine with archival, survey, census, and satellite data, we implement a spatial regression discontinuity design. We argue that the border between program areas (treatment) and neighboring areas (counterfactual) is plausibly random at the local level and confirm that there are no observable differences in pre-treatment characteristics. We find a strong discontinuity in ethnic diversity but no differences in school provision between program areas and counterfactual areas in the short run as well as in the long run. As individuals were resettled to the program areas, they likely lack the dense social networks that favor collective action to either hold politicians accountable or to provide public goods throughout cooperation at the community level. Our results are not driven by spillovers from treatment to counterfactual areas. A mediation analysis indicates that income effects are unlikely to drive this null result.

Heights and Development in a Cash-Crop Colony: Living Standards in Ghana, 1880-1980 (with Gareth Austin and Joerg Baten)
Abstract: While Ghana is a classic case of economic growth in an agricultural-export colony, scholars have queried whether it was sustained, and how far its benefits were widely distributed, socially and regionally. Using height as a measure of human well-being we explore the evolution of living standards and regional inequality in Ghana from 1870 to 1980. Our findings suggest that, overall, living standards improved during colonial times and that a trend reversal occurred during the economic crisis in the 1973-83. In a regression analysis we test several covariates reflecting the major economic and social changes that took place in early twentieth-century Ghana including railway construction, cocoa production, missionary activities, and urbanization. We find significant height gains in cocoa producing areas, whereas heights decreased with urbanization.

Modern Infrastructure, Cocoa and Welfare in Ghana, 1890-1930
Abstract: Modern infrastructure significantly reduced transportation costs in early 20th century Ghana. This increased the rents of cocoa farmers, boosting cocoa cultivation ultimately making Ghana the world’s largest exporter of cocoa. Using GIS we estimate the reductions in transportation costs by 11×11 grid cells. We then calculate the social savings from i) railroads and ii) roads and iii) railroads and roads combined. We then estimate the income of a small cocoa farmer depending on location and find that it was 45%-90% higher than that of a subsistence farmer. Reductions in world market prices and increases in export duties exactly offset the gains of the marginal producer from the downward trend in transportation costs.

Selective Mortality or Growth after Childhood? What really is Key to Understand the Puzzlingly Tall Adult Heights in Sub-Saharan Africa

On Inequality in Net Nutritional Status
Abstract: Anthropometry provides one of the best tools to assess nutritional and health status. Nutrition and health influence bodily growth positively and hence, body stature can shed light not only on the average endowment of nutritional and health inputs but also on an unequal consumption thereof. Comparing mean heights of social groups is a popular approach for measuring height inequality. Studying height differences between social groups, however, ignores inequality within those groups. Consequently, conclusions on total inequality can be misleading. In this paper, I address the measurement of height and health inequality within populations. Based on empirical findings, I develop a theoretical model, from which I infer how the height distribution responds to increasing inequality. Unequal societies tend to have a larger standard deviation in heights as the input-induced variance adds to the biological variance of heights. This property can be used for a measure of height inequality within populations. Finally, I draw attention to potential pitfalls in empirical applications.

Smaller Contributions

Work in Progress

  • Building a Nation within a Nation: Evidence from South Tyrol, Italy (with Melike Kokkizil)
  • Men under Arms in Colonial Africa: Tirailleurs Senegalais, 1880-1960 (with Denis Cogneau)
  • Performance of Kenyan Police Officers, 1940-1975 (with Oliver Vanden Eynde and Patrick Kuhn)
  • Trade as Insurance to Climate Change: The Effect of Infrastructure on the Impact of Weather Shocks in West Africa 1880-2010 (with Yuan Gu, Steven Poelhekke and Richard Tol)

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