Somalia After State Collapse: Chaos or Improvement?
November 30, 2006
Many people believe that Somalia’s economy has been in chaos since the collapse of itsnational government in 1991. We take a comparative institutional approach to examineSomalia’s performance relative to other African countries both when Somalia had agovernment and during its extended period of anarchy. We find that although Somalia ispoor, its relative economic performance has improved during its period of statelessness.We also describe how Somalia has provided basic law and order and a currency, whichhave enabled the country to achieve the coordination that has led to improvements in itsstandard of living.
