Elliott D. Green   Professor of Development Studies Department of International Development London School of Economics Houghton Street London WC2A 2AE UK E.D.Green(at)lse.ac.uk Staff Homepage Google Scholar Twitter

Research and Publications

1) Books

• Industrialization and Assimiliation: Explaining Ethnic Change in the Modern World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, December 2022.

  • Data on Harvard Dataverse available here

  • 'In Pursuit of Development' podcast with Prof. Dan Banik available here

  • 'Charter Cities' podcast with Kurtis Lockhart available here

  • 'Between the Lines' podcast at the Institute of Development Studies available here

  • Journal Reviews:

    • Ethnic and Racial Studies, 15/4/2024

    • Journal of Development Studies, 28/8/2024

• Political Opposition and Democracy in Sub-Saharan Africa, edited with Emil Uddhammar and Johanna Söderström. London: Routledge, September 2013. (Kindle edition published April 2016.)

2) Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

• The Politics of Ethnic Identity in Sub-Saharan Africa; Comparative Political Studies 54, 7 (June, 2021): 1197-1226.

  • Data on Harvard Dataverse available here.

• Explaining inter-ethnic marriage in Sub-Saharan Africa (with Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay); Journal of International Development 33, 4 (May, 2021): 627-643.

  • Discussed in 'Conscious Coupling: More Africans are Marrying Spouses of Different Ethnicities,' The Economist, February 6, 2020

• Ethnic Favouritism in Kenyan Education Reconsidered: When a Picture is Worth More Than a Thousand Regressions (with Rebecca Simson); Journal of Modern African Studies 58, 3 (September, 2020): 425-460.

  • Winner of the David and Helen Kimble Prize for the best article published in the Journal of Modern African Studies in 2020

• Ethnicity, National Identity and the State: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa; British Journal of Political Science 50, 2 (April, 2020): 757-779. Prepublication version available here

  • Data on Harvard Dataverse available here.

  • 'Four Questions' podcast with Dr. Alice Evans on this paper from 13/12/2017 available here.

• Industrialization and Ethnic Change in the Modern World; Ethnic and Racial Studies 42, 2 (February, 2019): 178-197. Prepublication version available here.

• Urbanization and Mortality Decline (with Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay); Journal of Regional Science 58, 2 (March, 2018): 483-503. Prepublication version available here.

• Taking It Personally: The Effect of Ethnic Attachment on Preferences for Regionalism (with Joan Ricart-Huguet); Studies in Comparative International Development 53, 1 (March, 2018): 67-89. Prepublication version available here.

• Pre-Colonial Political Centralization and Contemporary Development in Uganda (with Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay); Economic Development and Cultural Change 64, 3 (April, 2016): 471-508. Prepublication version available here.

• Decentralization and Development in Contemporary Uganda; Regional and Federal Studies 25, 5 (November, 2015): 491-508. Special Issue on Decentralization, Democracy and Development in Africa, edited by Jan Erk. Prepublication version available here.

• On the Relationship Between Fertility and Wealth: Evidence from Widow Suicides (Satis) in Early Colonial India (with Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay); Economics Letters 120, 2 (August, 2013): 302-304. Prepublication version available here.

• Explaining African Ethnic Diversity; International Political Science Review 34, 3 (June, 2013): 235-253 [lead article]. Prepublication version available here.

• Nation-Building and Conflict in Modern Africa (with Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay); World Development 45 (May, 2013): 108-118.

• The Political Demography of Conflict in Modern Africa; Civil Wars 14, 4 (December, 2012): 477-498 [lead article]. Prepublication version available here.

• The Reversal of Fortune Thesis Reconsidered (with Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay); Journal of Development Studies 48, 7 (July, 2012): 817-831. Prepublication version available here.

• On the Size and Shape of African States; International Studies Quarterly 56, 2 (June, 2012): 229-244 [lead article]. Prepublication version available here.

  • Data on Harvard Dataverse available here.

• Political Opposition and Democracy in Sub-Saharan Africa (with Emil Uddhammar and Johanna Soderstrom); Democratization 18, 5 (October, 2011): 1057-1066

• Democratisation and Decentralisation in Contemporary Africa: Evidence from Sudan and Ethiopia; Democratization 18, 5 (October, 2011): 1087-1105. Prepublication version available here.

• Patronage as Institutional Choice: Evidence from Rwanda and Uganda; Comparative Politics 43, 4 (July, 2011): 421-438. Prepublication version available here.

• The Political Economy of Nation Formation in Modern Tanzania: Explaining Stability in the Face of Diversity; Commonwealth and Comparative Politics 49, 2 (April, 2011): 223-244. Special Issue on Nationalism and Conflict Management, edited by Eric T. Woods, Robert Schertzer and Eric Kaufmann. Prepublication version available here.

• Patronage, District Creation and Reform in Uganda; Studies in Comparative International Development 45, 1 (March, 2010): 83-103. Prepublication version available here.

  • Data: STATA .dta file, .do file

  • This article and the previous working paper version have been referenced in the following newspaper articles:

    • 'Why New Districts for East, North; West None?', The Independent (Kampala), September 10, 2008.

    • 'Uganda's Districts Grow Beyond Size', Daily Monitor (Kampala), July 27, 2009.

    • 'Growth of Districts Needs to be Checked', New Vision (Kampala), November 30, 2009.

    • 'How to Keep Winning Elections - Uganda Style', Irish Times (Dublin), February 12, 2011.

    • 'Uganda: Money, New Districts Could Hand M7 the Vote, But at What Price?', East African (Nairobi), February 14, 2011.

• Ethnicity and Nationhood in Pre-Colonial Africa: The Case of Buganda; Nationalism and Ethnic Politics 16, 1 (January, 2010): 1-21 [lead article].  Prepublication version available here.

• Decentralization and Conflict in Uganda; Conflict, Security and Development 8, 4 (December, 2008): 427-450. Special Issue on Decentralization and Conflict, edited by Graham K. Brown and Frances Stewart. Prepublication version available here.

• Understanding the Limits to Ethnic Change: Evidence from Uganda's Lost Counties; Perspectives on Politics 6, 3 (September, 2008): 473-485.

• Demography, Diversity and Nativism in Contemporary Africa: Evidence from Uganda; Nations and Nationalism 13, 4 (October, 2007): 717- 736.

• Ethnicity and the Politics of Land Tenure Reform in Central Uganda; Commonwealth and Comparative Politics 44, 3 (November, 2006): 370-388.

3) Editor-Reviewed Publications (Book Chapters, Debates, Comments, etc.)

• Exchange on the quantitative measurement of ethnic and national identity (with Daniel Bochsler, Erin Jenne, Harris Mylonas and Andreas Wimmer); Nations and Nationalism 27, 1 (January, 2021): 22-40.

• Public Goods and National Identification (part of a debate on Andreas Wimmer's book Nation Building [2018]); Nations and Nationalism 25, 1 (January, 2019): 90-96.

• Structuralism, in Oxford Handbook on the Politics of Development, edited by Nicolas van de Walle and Carol Lancaster (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018): 43-63. Prepublication version available here.

• Benedict Anderson’s Imagined Communities: A Symposium (with John Breuilly, Thomas Hylland Eriksen, Jonathan Hearn, Joep Leerssen and John Sidel); Nations and Nationalism 22, 4 (October, 2016): 625-659.

• Dreams and Nightmares of Nationhood: The Obi Igwara Special Memorial Event to mark 50 Years of Decolonization in Africa, 1960–2010 (with Athena S. Leoussi, JE Spence and Paul Nugent); Nations and Nationalism 19, 3 (July 2013): 434-455.

• Demographic Change and Conflict in Contemporary Africa, in Political Demography: Identity, Conflict and Institutions, edited by Jack A. Goldstone, Eric Kaufman and Monica Duffy Toft (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2012): 238-251.

• Debate on David Laitin's Nations, States and Violence (with Michael Banton, Montserrat Guibernau and David Laitin); Nations and Nationalism 15, 4 (October, 2009): 557-574.

4) Working and Conference Papers

• Explaining Ethno-Regional Favouritism in Sub-Saharan Africa (with Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay); Governance and Local Development Institute Working Paper #64, University of Gothenburg, June 2023.

• Ethnic Favouritism in Kenyan Education Reconsidered: When a Picture is Worth More than a Thousand Regressions (with Rebecca Simson); Department of International Development Working Paper #19-196, LSE, July 2019.

• Roads and Regional Favoritism in Sub-Saharan Africa (with Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay); Department of International Development Working Paper #19-195, LSE, May 2019.

• The Politics of Ethnic Identity in Sub-Saharan Africa; Department of International Development Working Paper #17-188, LSE, November 2017.

• Taking It Personally: The Effect of Ethnic Attachment on Preferences for Regionalism (with Joan Ricart-Huguet), January 2016.

• The Rise and Fall of Decentralization in Contemporary Uganda; UNU-WIDER Working Paper #WP/2013/078, United Nations University, August 2013.

• Pre-Colonial Political Centralization and Contemporary Development in Uganda (with Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay); Afrobarometer Working Paper #WP141, November 2012.

• Pre-Colonial Political Centralization and Contemporary Development in Uganda (with Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay); Economic Organization and Public Policy Discussion Paper #39, STICERD, LSE, August 2012.

• Endogenous Ethnicity; Political Science and Political Economy Working Paper #3/11, Department of Government, LSE, March 2011.

• Explaining African Ethnic Diversity; Department of International Development Working Paper #122-11, LSE, March 2011.

• On the Size and Shape of African States; Political Science and Political Economy Working Paper #4/10, Department of Government, LSE, June 2010.

• The Reversal of Fortune Thesis Reconsidered; Economic Organization and Public Policy Discussion Paper #16, STICERD, LSE, April 2010.

• The Political Demography of Conflict in Modern Africa; DESTIN Working Paper #10-111, LSE, March 2010.

• District Creation and Decentralization in Uganda; Crisis States Research Centre Working Paper No. 24, LSE, January 2008 (an earlier version of my 2010 article in Studies in Comparative International Development listed above).

• Ethnicity and the Politics of Land Tenure Reform in Central Uganda; DESTIN Working Paper # 05-58, LSE, April 2005.

• What is an Ethnic Group? Political Economy, Constructivism and the Common Language Approach to Ethnicity; DESTIN Working Paper # 05-57, LSE, February 2005.

• The (Mis) Use of Ethnicity in Contemporary Political Economy Literaturee; Paper prepared for UNU WIDER conference on Making Peace Work, Helsinki, June 2004.; Paper prepared for UNU WIDER conference on Making Peace Work, Helsinki, June 2004.

5) Book Reviews

• Review of Mahmood Mamdani, Neither Settler nor Native: The Making and Unmaking of Permanent Minorities (Harvard University Press, 2020); Nations and Nationalism 27, 2 (2021).

• Review of J. Habyarimana, M. Humphreys, D. Posner and J. Weinstein, Coethnicity: Diversity and the Dilemmas of Collective Action (Russell Sage, 2009); African Affairs 109, 437 (2010).

• Review of Sanford Schram and Brian Caterino (eds.), Making Political Science Matter: Debating Knowledge, Research and Methods (New York University Press, 2006); Public Administration and Development 28, 3 (2008).

• Review of Paul Richards (ed.), No Peace, No War: An Anthropology of Contemporary Armed Conflict (James Currey, 2005); Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 13, 3 (2007).

• Review of Daniel Posner, Institutions and Ethnic Politics in Africa (Cambridge University Press, 2005); Nations and Nationalism 13, 1 (2007).

• Joint Review of G. McCann and S. McCloskey, From the Local to the Global: Key Issues in Development Studies (Pluto, 2003) and A. Kohli, C. Moon and G. Sorensen, States, Markets and Just Growth: Development in the Twentieth Century (United Nations University Press, 2003); Millennium: Journal of International Studies 34, 2 (2006).

• Review of Tatah Mentan, Dilemmas of Weak States: Africa and Transnational Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century (Ashgate, 2004); Political Studies Review 3, 3 (2005).

• Review of African Development Bank, African Development Report: Africa in the Global Trading System (Oxford University Press, 2004); Political Studies Review 3, 3 (2005).

• Review of United Nations Development Program, Human Development Report 2004: Cultural Liberty in Today's Diverse World (UNDP, 2004); Journal of Development Studies 41, 5 (2005).

• Review of Amy Chua, World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability (Arrow, 2003); Nations and Nationalism 11, 1 (2005).

6) Unpublished Papers and Works in Progress:

• Ethnic Favouritism and Inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa, with Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay (Queen Mary, University of London), under review

• Democracy and Ethnic Diversity in Sub-Saharan Africa

• The Political Poverty Cycle: Electoral Manipulations of Development Outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa, with Robin Harding (University of Oxford)

• Redefining Ethnicity (presented at International Studies Association Conference, San Diego, March 2006).

• On the Endogeneity of Ethnic Secessionist Groups (presented at First Global International Studies Conference, Istanbul, August 2005).