Does Colonial Origin Really Matter for Economic Growth in sub-Saharan Africa?

This paper investigates the channels through which colonial origin a¤ects eco-nomic growth in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Our \u85ndings suggest that colonial origin matters for growth in SSA and its likely transmission mechanism is human capital. In particular, our results suggests that British former colonies have acquired their superior economic performance over their French counterparts mainly because the negative e¤ects of human capital growth on per capita GDP growth has been com-paratively less severe in British former colonies. We do not \u85nd statistical evidence in support of the market distortion, trade openness, geography and natural resources channels. However, some channels that are statistically insigni\u85cant, notably, ge-ography and natural resources, seem to be economically as important as the one that is statistically signi\u85cant. The contribution of the study is in simultaneously exploring several feasible transmission channels between colonial origin and growth, which to the best of our knowledge, is yet to be explored in the literature. This approach has enabled us introduce some nuance into the colonial origins- growth debate