Research

This paper estimates how wartime borders shape post-conflict cooperation. Empirically, it assesses the legacy of the demarcation line that divided France in two from 1940 to 1943. We estimate how this division shaped cooperation after the war using two dyadic measures of cooperation: intermunicipal cooperation agreements and individual mobility patterns. Our specifications estimate the impact of the former border on cooperation while holding municipality and other dyad characteristics constant. This variation documents how wartime borders affect the choice of cooperation partners beyond their effects on the level of cooperation. According to our results, the demarcation line decreased both cooperation between once-separated municipalities, even after its dissolution. Further results emphasize the importance of diverging political preferences and path dependence in cooperation as important drivers of the persistence of this former border.

This paper investigates the educational legacies of Christian missions established before independence, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, focusing on contemporary disparities in educational content, quality, access, and outcomes. Using georeferenced data from over 20,000 schools and two million students participating in the Examen National d’État (Exetat) between 2016 and 2019, as well as primary data from a phone survey of 624 school directors, we explore how proximity to Catholic and Protestant missions during the colonial period influences educational opportunities today. We find that schools near historical Christian missions offer a broader and higher-quality curriculum, with increased access to study tracks outside the basic Pedagogy section. Students attending these schools are more likely to pass the Exetat and achieve grades qualifying for university admission, although the magnitude of the effect is modest. Supply-side factors, such as better infrastructure and more conducive school environments, explain half of the missionary proximity premium, while demand-side mechanisms, including students’ sorting and selection account for additional variation. Our findings reveal that the strong partnership between missions and the colonial state entrenched spatial inequalities in educational access and quality, inequalities that persist to this day.