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Fiscal Capacity and Dualism in Colonial States: The French Empire 1830-1962

Cogneau, Denis; Dupraz, Y.; Mesplé-Somps, Sandrine (2021), Fiscal Capacity and Dualism in Colonial States: The French Empire 1830-1962, The Journal of Economic History, 81, 2, p. 441-480

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Type
Article accepté pour publication ou publié
Date
2021
Journal name
The Journal of Economic History
Volume
81
Number
2
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Pages
441-480
Metadata
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Author(s)
Cogneau, Denis
Dupraz, Y.
Mesplé-Somps, Sandrine
Abstract (EN)
What was the capacity of European colonial states? How fiscally extractive were they? What was their capacity to provide public goods and services? And did this change in the “developmentalist” era of colonialism? To answer these questions, we use archival sources to build a new dataset on colonial states of the second French colonial empire (1830-1962). French colonial states extracted a substantial amount of revenue, but they were under-administered because public expenditure entailed high wage costs. These costs remained a strong constraint in the “developmentalist” era of colonialism, despite a dramatic increase in fiscal capacity and large overseas subsidies.
Subjects / Keywords
Histoire economique; fiscalite; periode coloniale; analyse economique
JEL
N01 - Development of the Discipline: Historiographical; Sources and Methods