Published on September 23, 2025 – Updated on September 23, 2025
Location

Pôle Tertiaire - Site La Rotonde - 26 avenue Léon Blum - 63000 Clermont-Ferrand 
Salle 212

Research seminar. "Building Nations through Shared Experiences: Evidence from African Football": a Replication of Depetris-Chauvin, Durante and Campante (2020).

Simone Bertoli
Université Clermont Auvergne, CERDI

Coauthor : Léonie Delpeyrou. 

Abstract

Depetris-Chauvin et al. (2020) analyze the effects of football on civil conflict in Africa. We engage into a replication of their analysis. This unveils major inconsistencies between the sample selection criteria described in the article and the composition of the estimation sample (41 errors for 109 country × qualification campaign pairs). Once
these inconsistencies are removed, the evidence on the effect o f a close qualification to the African Cup of Nations on conflict becomes substantially weaker. Several specifications produce a non-significant coefficient for the treatment. The placebo test proposed by the Authors themselves casts doubts on the validity of the identifying assumption in most specifications with a significant effect of the treatment.

Read the paper (Econstor)