Inherited Inequalities: Postcolonial Health Supply and Demand in India

 (draft available soon)

This paper demonstrates that regions historically under direct British rule in India exhibit stunted infant growth, malnutrition, and worse living standards than those in formerly indirectly ruled areas. Colonial-era differences in state fiscal capacity emerge as a crucial mechanism, with lower revenue per capita in directly ruled regions explaining nearly half of the differences in household material conditions and a third of the infant health gap. Moreover, colonial rule translates into enduring channels: on the supply side, a novel database of 19th-century health infrastructure reveals that directly ruled regions received lower investments, despite similar facility counts. This supply deficit remains persistent, including poor quality. On the demand side, I document constrained health-seeking behaviour: fewer prenatal visits, delayed postnatal care, non-institutional childbirth, and service utilisation patterns that reflect underlying deprivation apart from effective healthcare provision. The findings show that extractive colonial governance undermined long-run human capital due to weak state capacity and household economic resilience. 

The Negative Impacts of Colonization on the Local Population: Evidence from Morocco, with Ariane Salem and Dima El Hariri

 (draft available soon)