Suchergebnisse

Individual and social behaviors, such as voting patterns, the ability to trust others, participation in the community, health-seeking behaviors, or attitudes towards contraception, can persist over many years. Relying on new historical and contemporary data sources, the works compiled in this thesis aim at explaining and quantifying rigorously instances of persistence in behaviors and preferences. This work presents three contributions to the literature. Firstly, it compiles a new micro-level geocoded historical datasource on missionary activity in sub-Saharan Africa. Secondly, it has elucidated, in original ways, channels of persistence in development, which are not attributable to formal institutions. Thirdly, it has analyzed the intensive margin of diversity, providing a new way to address the endogeneity issue in the study of the role of diversity on income. The first part of the thesis is a work on the long-lasting influence of missionary activity in sub-Saharan Africa. I present there the research I have conducted with Julia Cagé. It relies a new database that we constructed and geocoded based on the Geography and Atlas of Protestant missions. This research is developed in the two first chapters of the thesis. The second part of this thesis studies the social conditions under which ancestry differences act as a persistent barrier for individual earnings in the United States. The United States is a natural choice to study the persistent effect of ancestry on income, as this is a country that was populated by subsequent waves of migration from different origins during a relatively short period of time. Moreover, the American Census Bureau has recorded data about ancestries since the 1850s. ; Les comportements politiques et sociaux tels que la participation politique, la confiance en autrui, l'engagement collectif, la prévention en santé, ou les attitudes vis à vis de la contraception, peuvent persister pendant de très nombreuses années. Cette thèse présente des travaux qui explorent et quantifient ...

Individual and social behaviors, such as voting patterns, the ability to trust others, participation in the community, health-seeking behaviors, or attitudes towards contraception, can persist over many years. Relying on new historical and contemporary data sources, the works compiled in this thesis aim at explaining and quantifying rigorously instances of persistence in behaviors and preferences. This work presents three contributions to the literature. Firstly, it compiles a new micro-level geocoded historical datasource on missionary activity in sub-Saharan Africa. Secondly, it has elucidated, in original ways, channels of persistence in development, which are not attributable to formal institutions. Thirdly, it has analyzed the intensive margin of diversity, providing a new way to address the endogeneity issue in the study of the role of diversity on income. The first part of the thesis is a work on the long-lasting influence of missionary activity in sub-Saharan Africa. I present there the research I have conducted with Julia Cagé. It relies a new database that we constructed and geocoded based on the Geography and Atlas of Protestant missions. This research is developed in the two first chapters of the thesis. The second part of this thesis studies the social conditions under which ancestry differences act as a persistent barrier for individual earnings in the United States. The United States is a natural choice to study the persistent effect of ancestry on income, as this is a country that was populated by subsequent waves of migration from different origins during a relatively short period of time. Moreover, the American Census Bureau has recorded data about ancestries since the 1850s. ; Les comportements politiques et sociaux tels que la participation politique, la confiance en autrui, l'engagement collectif, la prévention en santé, ou les attitudes vis à vis de la contraception, peuvent persister pendant de très nombreuses années. Cette thèse présente des travaux qui explorent et quantifient rigoureusement des instances de persistance dans ces comportements, en utilisant de nouvelles sources de données historiques et contemporaines. Les travaux présentés dans cette thèse contribuent à la littérature de trois manières différentes. En premier lieu, ils présentent une nouvelle base de données sur la présence des missionnaires chrétiens en Afrique et leurs investissements. Cette base de données est unique en ce qu'elle est entièrement géocodée et présente des données à un niveau de désagrégation très fin. En deuxième lieu, ces travaux mettent en avant de manière originale des canaux de persistance dans le développement qui ne sont pas attribuables aux différences institutionnelles. En troisième lieu, en analysant la marge intensive de la diversité, ces travaux proposent aussi une nouvelle manière d'aborder la question de l'endogénéité dans l'étude du rôle économique de la diversité des origines dans une société. La première partie de cette thèse est un travail sur l'effet persistant sur le développement de l'activité missionnaire en Afrique subsaharienne. La deuxième partie de cette thèse étudie les conditions sociales qui font que les différences d'origine peuvent devenir une barrière à la réussite économique aux États-Unis.

Cet article présente un nouvel arbitrage entre efficience et équité consécutivement aux déductions d'impôt sur les dons privés pour un bien public, lorsqu'il y a plusieurs biens publics. La déduction d'impôt permet de lever efficacement des fonds publics mais elle peut aussi altérer la part relative des biens publics. Nous déterminons la condition pour qu'une déduction plus généreuse soit efficiente au sens de Pareto, condition pour que l'arbitrage disparaisse. Enfin, nous établissons la formule qui fixe le taux de déduction d'impôt optimal. Classification JEL : H21, H23, H41.

We offer new evidence on the spatial economic impact of Italian unification. Adopting municipal population as a proxy for local economic activity, we construct a new geocoded dataset spanning the pre- and post-unification periods and discover robust evidence of an acceleration in growth near the former borders. A disproportionate improvement in market access boosted growth in these locations when barriers to trade were dismantled. Indirectly, unification's decisive contribution to intraregional market integration, local specialization and exchange, and economic development is revealed.

This article investigates the long-term historical impact of missionary activity on the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. On the one hand, missionaries were among the first to invest in modern medicine in a number of countries. On the other hand, Christianity influenced sexual beliefs and behaviors. We build a new geocoded dataset locating Protestant and Catholic missions in the early 20th century, as well as their health investments. Using a number of different empirical strategies to address selection in missionary locations and into health investments, we show that missionary presence has conflicting effects on HIV today. Regions close to historical mission stations exhibit higher HIV prevalence. This negative impact is robust to multiple specifications accounting for urbanization, and we provide evidence that it is specific to STDs. Less knowledge about condom use is a likely channel. On the contrary, among regions historically close to missionary settlements, proximity to a mission with a health investment is associated with lower HIV prevalence nowadays. Safer sexual behaviors around these missions are a possible explanatory channel.

This article investigates the long-term historical impact of missionary activity on the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. On the one hand, missionaries were among the first to invest in modern medicine in a number of countries. On the other hand, Christianity influenced sexual beliefs and behaviors. We build a new geocoded dataset locating Protestant and Catholic missions in the early 20th century, as well as their health investments. Using a number of different empirical strategies to address selection in missionary locations and into health investments, we show that missionary presence has conflicting effects on HIV today. Regions close to historical mission stations exhibit higher HIV prevalence. This negative impact is robust to multiple specifications accounting for urbanization, and we provide evidence that it is specific to STDs. Less knowledge about condom use is a likely channel. On the contrary, among regions historically close to missionary settlements, proximity to a mission with a health investment is associated with lower HIV prevalence nowadays. Safer sexual behaviors around these missions are a possible explanatory channel.

This article investigates the long-term historical impact of missionary activity on the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. On the one hand, missionaries were among the first to invest in modern medicine in a number of countries. On the other hand, Christianity influenced sexual beliefs and behaviors. We build a new geocoded dataset locating Protestant and Catholic missions in the early 20th century, as well as their health investments. Using a number of different empirical strategies to address selection in missionary locations and into health investments, we show that missionary presence has conflicting effects on HIV today. Regions close to historical mission stations exhibit higher HIV prevalence. This negative impact is robust to multiple specifications accounting for urbanization, and we provide evidence that it is specific to STDs. Less knowledge about condom use is a likely channel. On the contrary, among regions historically close to missionary settlements, proximity to a mission with a health investment is associated with lower HIV prevalence nowadays. Safer sexual behaviors around these missions are a possible explanatory channel.

This article investigates the long-term historical impact of missionary activity on the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. On the one hand, missionaries were among the first to invest in modern medicine in a number of countries. On the other hand, Christianity influenced sexual beliefs and behaviors. We build a new geocoded dataset locating Protestant and Catholic missions in the early 20th century, as well as their health investments. Using a number of different empirical strategies to address selection in missionary locations and into health investments, we show that missionary presence has conflicting effects on HIV today. Regions close to historical mission stations exhibit higher HIV prevalence. This negative impact is robust to multiple specifications accounting for urbanization, and we provide evidence that it is specific to STDs. Less knowledge about condom use is a likely channel. On the contrary, among regions historically close to missionary settlements, proximity to a mission with a health investment is associated with lower HIV prevalence nowadays. Safer sexual behaviors around these missions are a possible explanatory channel.

This article investigates the long-term historical impact of missionary activity on the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. On the one hand, missionaries were among the first to invest in modern medicine in a number of countries. On the other hand, Christianity influenced sexual beliefs and behaviors. We build a new geocoded dataset locating Protestant and Catholic missions in the early 20th century, as well as their health investments. Using a number of different empirical strategies to address selection in missionary locations and into health investments, we show that missionary presence has conflicting effects on HIV today. Regions close to historical mission stations exhibit higher HIV prevalence. This negative impact is robust to multiple specifications accounting for urbanization, and we provide evidence that it is specific to STDs. Less knowledge about condom use is a likely channel. On the contrary, among regions historically close to missionary settlements, proximity to a mission with a health investment is associated with lower HIV prevalence nowadays. Safer sexual behaviors around these missions are a possible explanatory channel.

This article investigates the long-term consequences of the printing press in the nineteenth century sub-Saharan Africa on social capital nowadays. Protestant missionaries were the first to import the printing press and to allow the indigenous population to use it. We build a new geocoded dataset locating Protestant missions in 1903. This dataset includes, for each mission station, the geographic location and its characteristics, as well as the printing-, educational-, and health-related investments undertaken by the mission. We show that, within regions close to missions, proximity to a printing press is associated with higher newspaper readership, trust, education, and political participation.