National institutions and subnational development in Africa

Few issues have received more inquiry in the social sciences than “”what are the fundamental determinants of comparative development?”” The institutional view asserts that the ultimate causes of underdevelopment are poorly performing institutional structures, such as lack of constraints on the executive, poor property-rights protection, as well as inefficient legal and court systems (see Acemoglu, Johnson and Robinson 2005 for a review and Acemoglu and Robinson 2012 for an influential popular argument). Other works downplay the role of formal institutions, emphasising instead the importance of geographical features, informal cultural norms, genetic, and epidemiological traits (see Spolaore and Wacziarg 2013 for a review, and Diamond 1997 and Landes 1998 on popular arguments on the importance of geography and culture, respectively).