Development at the Border: Policies and National Integration in Côte D'Ivoire and Its Neighbors
利用1980-90年代家庭调查数据，采用断点回归设计，研究科特迪瓦与加纳、马里边境地区在消费、儿童发育、基础设施等方面的差异，发现这些差异主要由可逆的农业政策（如可可、咖啡、棉花政策）而非制度特征导致。
By applying regression discontinuity designs to a set of household surveys from the 1980–90s, we examine whether Côte d'Ivoire's aggregate wealth was translated at the borders of neighboring countries. At the border of Ghana and at the end of the 1980s, large discontinuities are detected for consumption, child stunting, and access to electricity and safe water. Border discontinuities in consumption can be explained by differences in cash crop policies (cocoa and coffee). When these policies converged in the 1990s, the only differences that persisted were those in rural facilities. In the North, cash crop (cotton) income again made a difference for consumption and nutrition (the case of Mali). On the one hand, large differences in welfare can hold at the borders dividing African countries despite their assumed porosity. On the other hand, border discontinuities seem to reflect the impact of reversible public policies rather than intangible institutional traits.