%0 Journal Article %9 ACL : Articles dans des revues avec comité de lecture répertoriées par l'AERES %A Cogneau, Denis %A Dupraz, Y. %A Mesplé-Somps, Sandrine %T Fiscal capacity and dualism in colonial states : the French Empire 1830-1962 %D 2021 %L PAR00022895 %G ENG %J Journal of Economic History %@ 0022-0507 %K AFRIQUE ; FRANCE %K EMPIRE COLONIAL FRANCAIS %M ISI:000655506100004 %N 2 %P 441-480 %R 10.1017/S0022050721000140 %U https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/PAR00022895 %V 81 %W Horizon (IRD) %X What was the capacity of European colonial states? How fiscally extractive were they? What was their capacity to provide public goods and services? And did this change in the 'developmentalist' era of colonialism? To answer these questions, we use archival sources to build a new dataset on colonial states of the second French colonial empire (1830-1962). French colonial states extracted a substantial amount of revenue, but they were under-administered because public expenditure entailed high wage costs. These costs remained a strong constraint in the 'developmentalist' era of colonialism, despite a dramatic increase in fiscal capacity and large overseas subsidies. %$ 094 ; 112 ; 114