The trans‐Atlantic slave trade and local political fragmentation in Africa
研究跨大西洋奴隶贸易如何导致前殖民时期非洲村庄和城镇的政治碎片化，并发现这种碎片化至今仍影响经济发展，如尼日利亚和坦桑尼亚的贿赂现象。
This article examines the possibility that the trans‐Atlantic slave trade influenced the political institutions of villages and towns in precolonial Africa. Using anthropological data, it shows that villages and towns of ethnic groups with higher slave exports were more politically fragmented during the precolonial era. Instrumental variables are used to show that the relationship is causal. It is argued that this fragmentation is important for relative economic development because it still influences political institutions today. This argument is supported by the use of more contemporary data to show that in contemporary Nigeria and Tanzania, areas with higher levels of precolonial political fragmentation have a higher incidence of bribery.