Destroy and Build? Economic Effects of Centres de Regroupement in the Algerian War

Urbanization is generally accompanied by development. However, whether abrupt unintended urbanization can stimulate future progress is an open question. The French government constructed thousands of Centres de Regroupement (resettlement centers) in Algeria during the Independence War, to which the army forcefully relocated around 2.5 million civilians. The policy took these civilians away from their previous agricultural lives, and concentrated them within prison camps. Using the heterogeneity in treatment across regions, Difference-in-Differences estimates show that the policy has a persistent negative impact on the population growth overall but a continuing positive impact on urbanization. To address the endogeneity, I use the facts that i) the army implemented the policy out of purely military concerns and ii) the whole process lacked coherent planning from the authority. The findings provide novel insights into the long-run economic impacts of unintended urbanization.