Suchergebnisse

This volume presents a global sample of country cases of successful development strategies, and seeks to delineate the root causes of success: initial conditions, local and international factors, relative contributions by domestic and external agents, as well as the prognosis of challenges for the future.

The current paper, first, finds that although the post-independence growth of African economies has fallen substantially below that of other regions, this comparative evidence is less than uniform across time and countries. Second, it uncovers total factor productivity as the primary culprit underlying the generally dismal growth record. Third, reflecting recent evidence, the paper finds that "policy syndromes" represent a major culprit explaining the growth performance, with their absence accounting for nearly 3.0 percentage point rise in the annual per capita GDP growth via increases in TFP. Finally, the paper finds that governance exerts positive direct and indirect impacts on growth; the latter is via the potential ability of governance to achieve a syndrome-free regime. -- African growth ; policy syndromes ; governance

AbstractThe global economic crisis beginning in 2008 has come at an inopportune time for Africa. Economic growth had recovered, poverty had declined, and human development had improved. Then the crisis hit. Growth then fell by 60 per cent. The growth decline has been less than in previous economic crises though. Africa's resilience currently likely results from improvements in economic and political governance and to changes in the external environment. It appears that Africa will once again resume its path towards prosperity. However, although low‐income and 'fragile' countries appear to be holding up well, many of them critically depend on external assistance. Above all, the commitment to improved governance must continue. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Recent evidence from an exhaustive political economy study of growth of African economies- the growth project of the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) suggests that 'policy syndromes' have substantially contributed to the generally poor growth in sub-Saharan Africa during post-independence. The current article employs the unique data and insights generated by the growth project to further explore the importance of a 'syndrome-free' (SF) regime for growth in the region by examining: (i) the channels via which SF affects growth, total factor productivity (TFP) versus factors of production; and (ii) the role of institutions in mediating this impact, with special attention accorded the efficacy of the restraint on the executive branch of government in mitigating the potentially adverse effect of ethnicity.

AbstractThe present study examines the extent to which income distribution affects the ability of economic growth to reduce poverty, based on 1990s data for a sample of rural and urban sectors of African economies. Using the basic‐needs approach, an analysis‐of‐covariance model is derived and estimated, with the headcount, gap, and squared gap poverty ratios serving as the respective dependent variables, and the Gini coefficient and PPP‐adjusted incomes as explanatory variables. The study finds that the responsiveness of poverty to income growth is a decreasing function of inequality, albeit at varying rates for the three poverty measures: lowest for the headcount, followed by the gap and fastest for the squared gap. The ranges for the income elasticity in the sample are estimated at: 0.02–0.68, 0.11–1.05, and 0.10–1.35, respectively, for these poverty measures. Furthermore while, on average, the responsiveness of poverty to income growth appears to be the same between the rural and urban sectors, there are substantial sectoral differences across countries. The results suggest the need for country‐specific emphases on growth relative to inequality.