Independence and trade: new evidence from French colonial trade data

Abstract

The consequences on international trade of country breaks-up have receivedan increasing attention. This paper investigates the effect of independence on bilateral trade of former French colonies with a focus on Sub-Saharan Africa.Thanks to an original dataset including data on pre-independence bilateraltrade we obtain more accurate results. We also show that former Frenchcolonies in Sub-Saharan Africa exhibit distinctive post-colonial trade patternsas compared to other former French colonies