Biography: Nathan Nunn is a Professor of Economics at the University of British Columbia and holds a Canada Research Chair in cultural economics. His research examines the historical and dynamic process of economic development, focusing on the evolution of culture, norms, and institutions across societies. He has published dozens of articles aimed at improving our understanding of the historical process of factors relevant to economic development, including distrust, gender norms, religiosity, rule-following, zero-sum thinking, honor cultures, conflict, immigration, state formation, and support for democracy. Another aspect of his research examines the importance of local cultural context for contemporary development policy.
“Development Mismatch?: Evidence from Agricultural Projects in Pastoral Africa”
Abstract: We study the consequences of a clash between contemporary development initiatives and traditional economic practices in Africa. Crop agriculture has expanded considerably across the continent in recent years. Much of this expansion has occurred in traditionally pastoral areas. This is believed to be a major cause of conflict between pastoral and agricultural ethnic groups. We test this hypothesis using geocoded data on agricultural development projects across Africa from 1995-2014. We find that implementing agricultural projects in traditionally pastoral areas leads to a two-fold increase in the risk of conflict. We find no equivalent effect for agricultural projects implemented in traditionally agricultural areas, nor for non-agricultural projects implemented in either location. We also find that this mechanism contributes to the spread of extremist-religious conflict in the form of jihadist attacks. The effects are muted when agricultural projects are paired with pastoral projects, which is more likely to occur when pastoral groups have more political power. Despite these effects on conflict, we find that crop agriculture projects increase nighttime luminosity in both agricultural and pastoral areas. Evidence from survey data suggest that the gains in pastoral areas are concentrated in on-pastoral households. Our results indicate that “development mismatch” – i.e., imposing projects that are misaligned with local communities – can be costly.