IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ehl/wpaper/100861.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Regional inequalities in African political economy: theory, conceptualization and measurement, and political effects

Author

Listed:
  • Boone, Catherine
  • Simson, Rebecca

Abstract

There is growing recognition in the economics literature that African countries are characterized by very large economic disparities across subnational regions. Yet the lack of systematic and reliable empirical data at subnational levels of aggregation has made it difficult to explore possible links between these spatial inequalities and political dynamics. This paper reviews some of the empirical literature that attempts to measure and compare spatial inequality within and acorss African countries, and asks whether and how it might be used to bring studies of Africa into dialogue with comparative political economy work on regional inequality in other parts of the world.

Suggested Citation

  • Boone, Catherine & Simson, Rebecca, 2019. "Regional inequalities in African political economy: theory, conceptualization and measurement, and political effects," Economic History Working Papers 100861, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:wpaper:100861
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/100861/
    File Function: Open access version.
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Elias Papaioannou, 2014. "National Institutions and Subnational Development in Africa," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 129(1), pages 151-213.
    2. Lahoti Rahul & Jayadev Arjun & Reddy Sanjay, 2016. "The Global Consumption and Income Project (GCIP): An Overview," Journal of Globalization and Development, De Gruyter, vol. 7(1), pages 61-108, June.
    3. Jean-Paul Azam, 2001. "The Redistributive State and Conflicts in Africa," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 38(4), pages 429-444, July.
    4. Angus Deaton, 2005. "Measuring Poverty in a Growing World (or Measuring Growth in a Poor World)," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 87(1), pages 1-19, February.
    5. Kanbur, Ravi & Venables, Anthony J. (ed.), 2005. "Spatial Inequality and Development," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199278633, Decembrie.
    6. François Bourguignon, 2015. "Appraising income inequality databases in Latin America," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 13(4), pages 557-578, December.
    7. William Easterly & Ross Levine, 1997. "Africa's Growth Tragedy: Policies and Ethnic Divisions," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(4), pages 1203-1250.
    8. Simson, Rebecca, 2018. "Mapping recent inequality trends in developing countries," Economic History Working Papers 101863, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
    9. Charlotta Mellander & José Lobo & Kevin Stolarick & Zara Matheson, 2015. "Night-Time Light Data: A Good Proxy Measure for Economic Activity?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(10), pages 1-18, October.
    10. Vernon Henderson & Adam Storeygard & David N. Weil, 2011. "A Bright Idea for Measuring Economic Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(3), pages 194-199, May.
    11. repec:oup:qjecon:v:129:y:2013:i:1:p:151-213 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Anthony Atkinson, 2015. "The Distribution of Top Incomes in Former British West Africa," Working Papers 201503, World Inequality Lab.
    13. Stelios Michalopoulos & Elias Papaioannou, 2013. "Pre‐Colonial Ethnic Institutions and Contemporary African Development," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 81(1), pages 113-152, January.
    14. repec:fth:oxesaf:2001-3 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Sue Bowden & Blessing Chiripanhura & Paul Mosley, 2008. "Measuring and explaining poverty in six African countries: A long-period approach," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(8), pages 1049-1079.
    16. Galbraith, James K., 2012. "Inequality and Instability: A Study of the World Economy Just Before the Great Crisis," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199855650, Decembrie.
    17. Persson, Torsten & Tabellini, Guido, 1996. "Federal Fiscal Constitutions: Risk Sharing and Moral Hazard," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 64(3), pages 623-646, May.
    18. Kanbur, Ravi & Venables, Anthony J., 2005. "SPATIAL INEQUALITY AND DEVELOPMENT Overview of UNU-WIDER Project," Working Papers 127127, Cornell University, Department of Applied Economics and Management.
    19. Beramendi,Pablo, 2014. "The Political Geography of Inequality," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107637214.
    20. Sukkoo Kim, 2008. "Spatial Inequality and Economic Development," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 28050, December.
    21. Beramendi, Pablo, 2007. "Inequality and the Territorial Fragmentation of Solidarity," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 61(4), pages 783-820, October.
    22. Shimeles Abebe & Tiguéné Nabassaga, 2017. "Working Paper 246 - Why is inequality high in Africa?," Working Paper Series 2355, African Development Bank.
    23. Facundo Alvaredo & Thomas Piketty & Emmanuel Saez & Lucas Chancel & Gabriel Zucman, 2018. "World Inequality Report 2018," PSE-Ecole d'économie de Paris (Postprint) halshs-01885458, HAL.
    24. Abebe Shimeles & Tiguene Nabassaga, 2018. "Why Is Inequality High in Africa?," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 27(1), pages 108-126.
    25. William Nordhaus & Xi Chen, 2015. "A sharper image? Estimates of the precision of nighttime lights as a proxy for economic statistics," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 15(1), pages 217-246.
    26. Maxim Pinkovskiy & Xavier Sala-i-Martin, 2016. "Lights, Camera … Income! Illuminating the National Accounts-Household Surveys Debate," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 131(2), pages 579-631.
    27. J. Vernon Henderson & Adam Storeygard & David N. Weil, 2012. "Measuring Economic Growth from Outer Space," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(2), pages 994-1028, April.
    28. Sudhir Anand & Paul Segal, 2008. "What Do We Know about Global Income Inequality?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 46(1), pages 57-94, March.
    29. Atkinson, Anthony B., 2015. "Inequality: what can be done?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 101810, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    30. Anthony Atkinson, 2015. "Top Incomes in East Africa Before and After Independence," Working Papers 201502, World Inequality Lab.
    31. Ravi Kanbur & Tony Venables, 2005. "Introduction: Spatial inequality and development," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 5(1), pages 1-2, January.
    32. Persson, Torsten & Tabellini, Guido, 1996. "Federal Fiscal Constitutions: Risk Sharing and Redistribution," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 104(5), pages 979-1009, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Boone, Catherine & Simson, Rebecca, 2019. "Regional inequalities in African political economy: theory, conceptualization and measurement, and political effects," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 100861, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    2. Lessmann, Christian & Seidel, André, 2017. "Regional inequality, convergence, and its determinants – A view from outer space," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 110-132.
    3. Bluhm, Richard & Krause, Melanie, 2022. "Top lights: Bright cities and their contribution to economic development," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    4. Shapiro, Daniel & Oh, Chang Hoon & Zhang, Peng, 2023. "Nighttime lights data and their implications for IB research," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 29(5).
    5. Provenzano, Sandro, 2024. "Accountability failure in isolated areas: the cost of remoteness from the capital city," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 120909, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    6. Dickinson, Jeffrey, 2020. "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles: What Drives Human-Made Light?," MPRA Paper 103504, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Felbermayr, Gabriel & Gröschl, Jasmin & Sanders, Mark & Schippers, Vincent & Steinwachs, Thomas, 2018. "Shedding Light on the Spatial Diffusion of Disasters," VfS Annual Conference 2018 (Freiburg, Breisgau): Digital Economy 181556, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    8. José García-Montalvo & Marta Reynal-Querol & Juan Carlos Muñoz Mora, 2021. "Measuring Inequality from Above," Working Papers 1252, Barcelona School of Economics.
    9. Batuo E. Michael & George Kararach & Issam Malki, 2021. "Working Paper 353 - Inequality and the role of macroeconomic and institutional forces in Africa," Working Paper Series 2479, African Development Bank.
    10. Jaqueson K. Galimberti, 2020. "Forecasting GDP Growth from Outer Space," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 82(4), pages 697-722, August.
    11. Xu Shengxia & Liu Qiang & Lu Xiaoli, 2021. "Measuring the Imbalance of Regional Development from Outer Space in China," Journal of Systems Science and Information, De Gruyter, vol. 9(5), pages 519-532, October.
    12. Jie Zhang, 2021. "More political representation, more economic development? Evidence from Turkey," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 187(3), pages 275-299, June.
    13. Jean-Louis Combes & Pascale Combes Motel, 2022. "Que nous apprend la littérature récente sur la « nature et les causes de la richesse des nations » ?," Mondes en développement, De Boeck Université, vol. 0(3), pages 289-313.
    14. Breinlich, Holger & Ottaviano, Gianmarco I.P. & Temple, Jonathan R.W., 2014. "Regional Growth and Regional Decline," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 4, pages 683-779, Elsevier.
    15. Patrick Lehnert & Michael Niederberger & Uschi Backes-Gellner & Eric Bettinger, 2020. "Proxying Economic Activity with Daytime Satellite Imagery: Filling Data Gaps Across Time and Space," Economics of Education Working Paper Series 0165, University of Zurich, Department of Business Administration (IBW), revised Sep 2022.
    16. Felbermayr, Gabriel & Gröschl, Jasmin & Sanders, Mark & Schippers, Vincent & Steinwachs, Thomas, 2022. "The economic impact of weather anomalies," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    17. Jaqueson K Galimberti & Stefan Pichler & Regina Pleninger, 2023. "Measuring Inequality Using Geospatial Data," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 37(4), pages 549-569.
    18. Vicente Rios & Beatriz Manotas-Hidalgo & Lisa Gianmoena, 2021. "Spatial Inequality, Civil Conflict and Cells: A Dynamic Spatial Probit Approach," Documentos de Trabajo - Lan Gaiak Departamento de Economía - Universidad Pública de Navarra 2110, Departamento de Economía - Universidad Pública de Navarra.
    19. Anthony Mveyange, 2015. "Night lights and regional income inequality in Africa," WIDER Working Paper Series 085, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    20. Donna Feir & Rob Gillezeau & Maggie Jones, 2018. "Illuminating Indigenous Economic Development," Department Discussion Papers 1806, Department of Economics, University of Victoria.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Africa; inequality; regionalism; political geography; urban-rural; political economy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • N0 - Economic History - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ehl:wpaper:100861. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: LSERO Manager on behalf of EH Dept. (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/chlseuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.