Quality of Sub-national Government and Regional Development in Africa

Despite widespread interest in government quality and economic development, the role of sub-national has been largely overlooked. This represents an omission Africa, given ongoing processes devolution much continent. In this article, we consider impact institutions on development 339 regions across 22 African countries. We create a novel index based large-scale survey data assess its regional economies using satellite night light luminosity. To address causality concerns, instrument with from pre-colonial societies. Our results show positive significant relationship between even when controlling for national-level institutions. Better governments are powerful but often overlooked determinant Africa.