Dr Valeria Rueda Publishes Research on the Heterogeneous Effects of Christian Missionary Activity on Development in Sub-Saharan Africa

NEWS |

Dr Valeria Rueda, Pembroke’s Rokos Career Development Fellow in Economics, has published some recent research findings in The Long Economic and Political Shadow of History, Vol 2, alongside Dr Julia Cagé, Assistant Professor of Economics in the Department of Economics at Sciences Po, Paris . The pair are currently engaged in a collaborative research project, considering the persisting consequences of missionary activity on development from a range of perspectives.

This publication is part of a series which examines the shadow of history over various aspects of the economy and polity. Dr Cagé and Dr Rueda’s contributing chapter, The Devil is in the Detail: Christian Missions’ Heterogeneous Effects on Development in Sub-Saharan Africa, outlines their research thus far, which looks at the detail of missionary activity in sub-Saharan Africa and sheds new light on previous literature about the role of missions in development.

They argue that, ‘the devil lies in the detail: missionary activity was extensively heterogeneous and analysing the investments conducted by missions is a way to capture this heterogeneity. Depending on the type of investments conducted, missionary activity had different effects on different dimensions of development.’

Among other observations, their initial research shows that the net effect of proximity to historical mission settlements on HIV prevalence is negative. They attribute this to the generally negative perceptions of condom use and contraception in the regions. This research highlights the fact that, ‘Missionary activity is in general associated with better social capital and education outcomes, but the same cannot always be said for health outcomes, in particular when considering sexually transmitted diseases.’

This chapter details part of their ongoing work, so we spoke to Dr Rueda to get a better understanding of what comes next in the project. She said:

‘The next step in the project is to quantify more accurately the persistence of missionary investments after colonisation. We aim at getting a better sense of the location of modern dispensaries, hospitals, and schools; and determine how much more likely they are to still be concentrated around missionary locations. To investigate this question, we are currently investigating archives from more recent times.’