Data and Code for: Political Distortions, State Capture, and Economic Development in Africa

These files contain the data for the journal article "Political Distortions, State Capture, and Economic Development in Africa" by Nathan Canen and Leonard Wantchekon.<br><br>The article studies the role of political distortions in driving economic outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa. We discuss how existing theories for development based on historical factors (e.g., pre-colonial and colonial institutions, or ethnic diversity) may not explain some new data from the region. We then consider a new framework based on political distortions, which includes state capture, the role of political connections, among others, in driving the variation in economic outcomes in the region, and use it to consider policies that may improve economic growth.