Understanding how historical institutions shape long-term social, political, and economic outcomes is critical for explaining persistent development disparities. My work sheds light on the colonial legacies of social policy and education in Africa by unpacking interactions between different colonizing actors and local communities. I combine archival research with geospatial techniques to tap new data sources and study legacies at a highly granular level. My research demonstrates how non-governmental actors, in particular Christian missions and schools, continue to shape contemporary educational outcomes, showing that their impact is moderated by relations to colonial governments and local communities, and has downstream consequences for gender equality and support for democracy. Further work highlights the early impact and persistence of colonial expenditure priorities, including continuities in international aid transfers. My work contributes to our understanding of deeply rooted policy and governance challenges, and might inform ways of overcoming them.
Between God and Nation: The Colonial Origins of Democracy Support in British Africa
Bastian Becker and Dean Dulay
Studies in Comparative International Development, forthcoming
[DOI] [DATA]
Missionary Legacies of Gender Equality: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa
Bastian Becker and Felix Meier zu Selhausen
European Review of Economic History, 29(4), 2025
[DOI] [DATA]
The Colonial Labour Question: Trade and Social Expenditure in Interwar Africa
Bastian Becker and Carina Schmitt
Global Social Policy, 24(3), 2024
[DOI] [DATA]
License to Educate: The Role of National Networks in Colonial Empires
Bastian Becker and Carina Schmitt
World Development, 169, 2023
[DOI]
The Colonial Struggle over Polygamy: Consequences for Educational Expansion in sub-Saharan Africa
Bastian Becker
Economic History of Developing Regions, 37(1), 2022
[DOI]
The Empire Within: Longitudinal Evidence on the Expansion of Christian Missions in Colonial Africa
Bastian Becker
Journal of Historical Political Economy, 2(2), 2022
[DOI] [DATA]
Mapping Missions: New Data for the Study of African History
Christina Hedde-von Westernhagen and Bastian Becker
Research Data Journal for the Humanities and Social Sciences, 7(1), 2022
[DOI] [DATA]
Colonial Legacies in International Aid: Policy Priorities and Actor Constellations
Bastian Becker
From Colonialism to International Aid, Palgrave Macmillan, 2020
[DOI] [PDF]
Colonial Legacies of Social Policy
Bastian Becker and Joan Ricart-Huguet
Oxford Handbook of Social Policies in the Developing World, Oxford University Press, forthcoming
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