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    <title>EconStor Collection:</title>
    <link>https://hdl.handle.net/10419/242629</link>
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    <pubDate>Fri, 01 May 2026 14:57:40 GMT</pubDate>
    <dc:date>2026-05-01T14:57:40Z</dc:date>
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      <title>Racial disparities in human capital: Numeracy in South Africa, 1850-1980</title>
      <link>https://hdl.handle.net/10419/322114</link>
      <description>Title: Racial disparities in human capital: Numeracy in South Africa, 1850-1980
Authors: Marco-Gracia, Francisco J.; Pérez Artés, María del Carmen; Rommelspacher, Amy
Abstract: South Africa represents a paradigmatic case in international literature on racial discrimination, illustrating a deeply institutionalised system that affected all aspects of daily life. Black, Coloured, and Asian populations were systematically relegated to a subordinate status compared to the dominant White minority. Drawing on direct statistical sources such as censuses and national budgets-despite certain limitations-this study explores long-term disparities through the lens of numeracy, a proxy for basic arithmetic skills. We analyse numeracy levels by race across cohorts born between the 1850s and the 1980s, with a particular focus on the Black population, given its demographic predominance. A key contribution of this research is the inclusion of province of residence as a control variable, alongside gender, birth decade, and literacy. Our results show clear and persistent gaps in numeracy by race and gender, with Black individuals and women consistently disadvantaged. Notably, numeracy levels indicative of full numerical literacy were not attained by the Black population until the 1960s cohort, more than a century after White individuals had reached that threshold. Strikingly, we also find unexpectedly high numeracy levels in the "homelands", suggesting a strong valuation of education by Black communities in these self-governed areas, a dynamic we refer to as "African Agency".</description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
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      <dc:date>2025-01-01T00:00:00Z</dc:date>
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    <item>
      <title>Elite persistence in Africa: Historical perspectives, state of knowledge and the path forward</title>
      <link>https://hdl.handle.net/10419/322112</link>
      <description>Title: Elite persistence in Africa: Historical perspectives, state of knowledge and the path forward
Authors: Simson, Rebecca
Abstract: In the 1960s and 1970s elite studies formed an integral part of the research agenda on newly independent African states. Commentators sought to predict the likely political and economic paths of independent African states based on the social backgrounds and political orientations of existing elites. Historians looked back in time, and debated the social continuities across the pre-colonial, colonial and postcolonial eras. But elite studied dropped off the research agenda in the 1980s and 1990s. This paper revisits earlier literature about elite continuity and change in Africa. It provides a broad sweep of the arguments about the origins of elites and sources of elite power across different epochs, and analyses the characteristics of the African 'top 1%' today using census data. It concludes by charting a research agenda that would enhance knowledge of the social origins and mobility paths of Africa's contemporary elites.</description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">https://hdl.handle.net/10419/322112</guid>
      <dc:date>2025-01-01T00:00:00Z</dc:date>
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      <title>German colonialism in Africa and the Pacific, 1884-1914</title>
      <link>https://hdl.handle.net/10419/322113</link>
      <description>Title: German colonialism in Africa and the Pacific, 1884-1914
Authors: Meier zu Selhausen, Felix
Abstract: In recent years, German colonialism has received growing public attention - a history long overshadowed by the World Wars. Due to its short-lived character, a long-term comparative view of German colonialism has not featured prominently in most accounts of European imperialism. This chapter traces the 30-year expansion of German colonialism in sub-Saharan Africa and the Pacific, with a focus on the development of foreign trade, fiscal capacity, and education. Although one of the motivations for acquiring colonies was the promise of substantial financial rewards, Germany barely profited economically from its colonies, with the exception of the Hanseatic trading firms, thus vindicating von Bismarck's initial skepticism about colonial ventures. The colonies never fulfilled their hopes serving as German population vent or supplier of tropical agricultural commodities to satisfy German industrial demand. Instead, trade with its own colonies accounted for only a negligible share of German foreign commerce, while colonial expenditures consistently exceeded fiscal revenues. Although Germany was a latecomer to colonialism, it came to possess the third-largest colonial empire in sub-Saharan Africa, with economic potential comparable to that of the British and French. In the final years of Germany's colonial empire, revenues were increasingly raised locally, and plantations, railroads, and trade were expanding-largely due to diamond discoveries in South-West Africa and the rubber boom. In this sense, German colonialism ended just as the colonies were becoming more self-sustaining and economically viable. The consequences and legacies of German colonialism varied across colonies. German rule transformed local societies through: (i) plantation economies that appropriated fertile land and relied on forced labor to cultivate tropical export crops (Cameroon and partly East Africa); (ii) trading economies in which local farmers produced crops for export with limited German investment (Togo, New Guinea and Samoa); and (iii) settler colonialism, where German settlers-facing strong local resistance-violently dispossessed the population in South-West Africa, culminating in the first genocide of the 20th century.</description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">https://hdl.handle.net/10419/322113</guid>
      <dc:date>2025-01-01T00:00:00Z</dc:date>
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    <item>
      <title>Long-run aid effectiveness in Africa's historical borderlands: Evidence from the Christian Missionary expansion</title>
      <link>https://hdl.handle.net/10419/322219</link>
      <description>Title: Long-run aid effectiveness in Africa's historical borderlands: Evidence from the Christian Missionary expansion
Authors: Cermeño, Alexandra L.; Quintigliano, Alessandra; Weisdorf, Jacob
Abstract: The lands surrounding the historical homeland borders in Africa are notoriously linked to conflict and underdevelopment. With half of Africa currently living within 30 km of a homeland border, the borderlands are natural focal points for development aid. We assess the long-run effectiveness of aid in these regions, exploring one of the most widespread aid initiatives in Africa associated with colonial Christian missionary expansion. We examine how proximity to historical homeland borders conditions the positive link observed between colonial missionary activities and economic development today, captured by satellite night light. Based on a novel approach to measuring aid effectiveness, our spatial analyses establish that the outright aid effectiveness associated with missionary activities drops by 50% on average within 40 km from a homeland border and is statistically equal to zero within 15 km away compared to a plausibly neutral reference area.</description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">https://hdl.handle.net/10419/322219</guid>
      <dc:date>2025-01-01T00:00:00Z</dc:date>
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