Cong Peng

PhD in Economic Geography
London School of Economics

IN PROGRESS

SEP 2014 - JUN 2015

SEP 2011 - JUN 2014

SEP 2007 - JUN 2011

Colonial Legacies: Shaping African cities
with J. Vernon Henderson and Neeraj G. Baruah

Differential institutions imposed under colonial rule continue to affect the spatial structure of African cities and day-to-day life. Based on a sample of 318 cities across 28 countries with satellite data on built cover over time, Anglophone origin cities com- pared to Francophone ones are more sprawling and have less regular spatial layouts overall. They especially have more leapfrog development at the extensive margin. Re- sults are impervious to a border experiment and to many robustness tests, measures of sprawl, and sub-samples. Why would colonial origins matter? British colonial govern- ments operated under indirect rule and a dual mandate within cities, allowing colonial and native sections to develop without an overall plan and coordination. French gov- ernments operated more under direct rule, with, in principle, comprehensive integrated city planning and land allocation mechanisms. While the results provide evidence of the strong role of colonial influence and persistence of institutions, they also have pub- lic policy relevance. In cities, from DHS data, similar households which are located in areas of the city with more leapfrog development have poorer connections to piped water, electricity, and landlines, presumably because of higher costs of providing in- frastructure with urban sprawl.

Nov 2015 - CURRENT

Center for Economic Performance, LSE
Research Assitant

Nov 2015 - CURRENT

Dec 2014 - Sep 2015

Sep 2012 - Mar 2014

Geographic Information System Workshop, LSE
Instructor
Workshop material download here

2016, 2017, 2018

2018

2017