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Artificial States

Author

Listed:
  • William Easterly

  • Alberto Alesina
  • Janina Matuszeski

Abstract

Artificial states are those in which political borders do not coincide with a division of nationalities desired by the people on the ground. We propose and compute for all countries in the world two new measures how artificial states are. One is based on measuring how borders split ethnic groups into two separate adjacent countries. The other one measures how straight land borders are, under the assumption the straight land borders are more likely to be artificial. We then show that these two measures seem to be highly correlated with several measures of political and economic success.

Suggested Citation

  • William Easterly & Alberto Alesina & Janina Matuszeski, 2006. "Artificial States," Working Papers 100, Center for Global Development.
    • Handle: RePEc:cgd:wpaper:100
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    File URL: http://www.cgdev.org/content/publications/detail/10648
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    JEL classification:

    • O10 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - General
    • F50 - International Economics - - International Relations, National Security, and International Political Economy - - - General

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