Building Nations Through Shared Experience : Evidence from African Football

Depetris-Chauvin, Emilio and Durante, Ruben and Campante, Filipe (2020) Building Nations Through Shared Experience : Evidence from African Football. The American Economic Review, 110 (5). pp. 1572-1602. ISSN 0002-8282

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Abstract

We examine whether shared collective experiences help build a national identity, by looking at the impact of national football teams' victories in sub-Saharan Africa. We find that individuals surveyed in the days after an important victory of their country's national team are 37 percent less likely to identify primarily with their ethnic group, and 30 percent more likely to trust other ethnicities, than those interviewed just before. Crucially, national team achievements also reduce violence: countries that (barely) qualified to the Africa Cup of Nations experience less civil conflict (9 percent fewer episodes) in the following months than countries that (barely) did not.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
The American Economic Review
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/2000/2002
Subjects:
?? economics and econometrics ??
ID Code:
138529
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
22 May 2020 16:20
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
18 Feb 2024 00:56