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Did the Cold War Produce Development Clusters in Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Michel Le Breton

    (TSE-R - Toulouse School of Economics - UT Capitole - Université Toulouse Capitole - Comue de Toulouse - Communauté d'universités et établissements de Toulouse - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement)

  • Paul Castañeda Dower

    (Unknown)

  • Gunes Gokmen

    (Unknown)

  • Шломо Вебер

    (Unknown)

Abstract

We examine the lasting impact of Cold War alignment on African development. To overcome the empirical challenge of ambiguous and interdependent international alliances during the Cold War, we introduce a non-cooperative game of social interactions. Using pre-determined, country-level characteristics to construct payoffs, we identify a unique two-bloc equilibrium partition of the continent. We then assign bloc alignments based on how the partition predicts UN voting patterns. Our empirical results indicate no income differences today between the Western and the Eastern blocs. However, their development paths reflect Cold War ideologies: Western-aligned African countries have greater inequality, financial development, and democracy, but lesser infrastructure, compared to Eastern-aligned ones.

Suggested Citation

  • Michel Le Breton & Paul Castañeda Dower & Gunes Gokmen & Шломо Вебер, 2026. "Did the Cold War Produce Development Clusters in Africa," Post-Print hal-05573607, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05573607
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2026.103776
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-05573607v1
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fuda Ma & Jin-Kao Hao, 2017. "A multiple search operator heuristic for the max-k-cut problem," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 248(1), pages 365-403, January.
    2. Vilmar Jefté Rodrigues de Sousa & Miguel F. Anjos & Sébastien Le Digabel, 2019. "Improving the linear relaxation of maximum k-cut with semidefinite-based constraints," EURO Journal on Computational Optimization, Springer;EURO - The Association of European Operational Research Societies, vol. 7(2), pages 123-151, June.
    3. Laura Palagi & Veronica Piccialli & Franz Rendl & Giovanni Rinaldi & Angelika Wiegele, 2012. "Computational Approaches to Max-Cut," International Series in Operations Research & Management Science, in: Miguel F. Anjos & Jean B. Lasserre (ed.), Handbook on Semidefinite, Conic and Polynomial Optimization, chapter 0, pages 821-847, Springer.
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    JEL classification:

    • C62 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Existence and Stability Conditions of Equilibrium
    • C72 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Noncooperative Games
    • F54 - International Economics - - International Relations, National Security, and International Political Economy - - - Colonialism; Imperialism; Postcolonialism
    • F55 - International Economics - - International Relations, National Security, and International Political Economy - - - International Institutional Arrangements
    • N47 - Economic History - - Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation - - - Africa; Oceania
    • O19 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - International Linkages to Development; Role of International Organizations
    • O57 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Comparative Studies of Countries
    • Y10 - Miscellaneous Categories - - Data: Tables and Charts - - - Data: Tables and Charts

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