Artificial states

Alberto Alesina; William Easterly; Janina Matuszeski

doi:10.1111/j.1542-4774.2010.01009.x

Artificial states

Alberto Alesina, William Easterly, Janina Matuszeski

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

We define artificial states as those in which political borders do not coincide with a division of nationalities desired by the people on the ground. We propose and compute for most countries in the world two measures of the degree to which borders may be artificial. One measures how borders split ethnic groups into two separate adjacent countries. The other measures the straightness of land borders, under the assumption the straight land borders are more likely to be artificial. We then show that these two measures are correlated with several measures of political and economic success.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	246-277
Number of pages	32
Journal	Journal of the European Economic Association
Volume	9
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1542-4774.2010.01009.x
State	Published - Apr 2011

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Economics, Econometrics and Finance(all)

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10.1111/j.1542-4774.2010.01009.x

Cite this

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Artificial states

Abstract

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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