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French and British colonial legacies in education : evidence from the partition of Cameroon
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Dupraz, Yannick (2019) French and British colonial legacies in education : evidence from the partition of Cameroon. Journal of Economic History, 79 (3). pp. 628-668. doi:10.1017/S0022050719000299
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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022050719000299
Abstract
Cameroon was partitioned between France and the United Kingdom after WWI and then reunited after independence. I use this natural experiment to investigate colonial legacies in education, using a border discontinuity analysis of historical census microdata from 1976. I find that men born in the decades following partition had, all else equal, one more year of schooling if they were born in the British part. This positive British effect disappeared after 1950, as the French increased education expenditure, and because of favoritism in school supply towards the Francophone side after reunification. Using 2005 census microdata, I find that the British advantage resurfaced more recently: Cameroonians born after 1970 are more likely to finish high school, attend a university, and have a high-skilled occupation if they were born in the former British part. I explain this result by the legacy of high grade repetition rates in the French-speaking education system and their detrimental effect on dropout.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||||||
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Subjects: | D History General and Old World > DT Africa L Education > LG Individual institutions (Asia. Africa) |
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Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Economics | ||||||||||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Education -- Cameroon -- History, Education -- France -- Colonies , Education -- Great Britain -- Colonies , Education and state -- Cameroon, Cameroon -- Colonial influence | ||||||||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Journal of Economic History | ||||||||||||
Publisher: | Cambridge University Press | ||||||||||||
ISSN: | 0022-0507 | ||||||||||||
Official Date: | September 2019 | ||||||||||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | 79 | ||||||||||||
Number: | 3 | ||||||||||||
Page Range: | pp. 628-668 | ||||||||||||
DOI: | 10.1017/S0022050719000299 | ||||||||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||||||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||||||||
Copyright Holders: | © The Economic History Association 2019 | ||||||||||||
RIOXX Funder/Project Grant: |
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