Trade and colonial status

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Periodical article

Title:	Trade and colonial status
Authors:	Sousa, José de Lochard, Julie
Year:	2012
Periodical:	Journal of African Economies (ISSN 0963-8024)
Volume:	21
Issue:	3
Pages:	409-439
Language:	English
Geographic terms:	Africa France Great Britain
Subjects:	international trade trade policy colonialism
External link:	https://jae.oxfordjournals.org/content/21/3/409.full.pdf
Abstract:	Does colonization explain differences in trade performance across developing countries? The authors analyse the differential impact of British versus French colonial legacies on the current trade of African ex-colonies. They initially find that former British colonies trade more, on average, than do their French counterparts. This difference might be the result of the relative superiority of British institutions. However, a core concern is the non-random selection of colonies by the British. Historians argue that with Britain, trade preceded colonization. Using an instrument based on colonization history to control for this endogeneity, the authors find no evidence of a systematic difference between the British and French colonial legacies with respect to trade. This finding suggests that the apparent better performance of British ex-colonies might be instead explained by precolonial conditions. App., bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]