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A growing body of literature highlights the importance of export sophistication for economic development. Given the newness of the literature on export sophistication, its determinants are under‐exploited. As a pioneer study, this paper attempts to fill this gap in the literature by examining the effect of infrastructure development on export sophistication. Based on a panel of 45 African countries over the period 2003–2016, the results of the different estimations show that infrastructure, including transport, electricity, ICT and access to water and sanitation, improves export sophistication in Africa. Our results also show that the effect of infrastructure varies at different intervals of the export sophistication distribution. Therefore, improved infrastructure would allow African countries to not only improve their export structure but also achieve sustainable and durable growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to examine and analyze the impact of financial development and foreign bank penetration on African economies. An empirical study for the period 1995–2015 is conducted using the system GMM estimator. Our empirical results indicate that foreign bank entry has a positive and significant impact on economic growth in the countries of North and Southern Africa, while in the other two regions considered in this study (West and Central Africa, East Africa) the impact is negative and rarely significant. In addition, our results show that the development of financial markets has a positive and significant effect on economic growth only in the Southern African region. The paper concludes that policymakers should focus on long‐term policies to strengthen the financial sector to truly meet the needs of African people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper empirically analyzes the financial development (FD)-growth nexus, and the financial development-total factor productivity (TFP) link in sub-Saharan Africa. The study is based on a VAR approach: Johansen cointegration tests and error correction models. The sample includes 22 countries over the period from 1960 to 2002. Results suggest that FD and economic growth and, FD and TFP are cointegrated for many countries. Moreover, in many cases, the relationship between FD and growth is characterized by bidirectional causality in the Granger sense, whereas the relation between FD and TFP is characterized by a unidirectional causality running from FD to TFP. With few exceptions, it appears that financial development spurs economic growth in countries where that growth is supported by technological progress. The implication of the findings is that any reform that causes betterment in the financial sector will foster economic growth through a sharp increase in technological progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Résumé: Alors qu'après une longue période de stagnation la croissance semble être revenue en Afrique, la question se pose de savoir si la nouvelle croissance africaine est durable. Cet article examine dans quelle mesure la croissance africaine est vulnérable aux chocs exogènes et quelles en sont les implications pour le financement internatìonal du développement. It montre en premier lieu la persistance de la vulnérabilité des économies africaines au regard de l'indice de vulnérabilitééconomique des Nations unies (EVI), utilisant une première série rétrospective de cet indice. En second lieu, s'appuyant sur divers travaux récents, il souligne l'importance de la vulnérabilité structurelle pour la croissance et le développement, particullèrement en Afrique. Enfin il examine le rôle du financement international pour réspondre à la vulnérabilité des économies africaines, suggérant de faire de la vulnérabilité structurelle un des critères d'allocation de l'aide de d'adapter les modailités de l'aide pour lui faire jouer de façon efficace un rôle d'assurance. While after a long stagnation growth seems to have come back in Africa, the issue remains to know whether the new African growth is sustainable. This paper examines to what extent African growth is vulnerable to exogeneous shocks and what are the implications for international developement finance. First it evidences the persistent vulnerability of African economies with regard to the U.N. Economic Vulnerability Index (EVI), using a first retrospective series of that index. Second, relying on several recent works, it unerlines that structural vulnerability matters, in particular in Africa. Finally it considers how international development finance can be used to face the vulnerability of African economies, suggesting to use structural vulnerability as one of the aid allocation criteria and to adopt modalities of aid so that it can effectively serve as an insurance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper studies the role played by the quality of property rights in the linkages of international capital flows into sub‐Saharan African (SSA) economies. Using panel data of 36 SSA countries over the period 1996–2015 and the ARDL procedure with the Pooled Mean Group regression method appropriate for non‐stationary panel data estimation, we account for the joint effects of property rights quality and openness to foreign capital flows on economic growth. We uncover the existence of a property rights quality threshold beyond which property rights either amplifies the spillovers effects or attenuates the negative effect of capital flows on economic growth. For instance, it takes a level of property rights of at least 60 to have a positive long‐term impact of capital flows on economic growth in natural resource‐poor African countries. The quality of property rights matters more to obtain spillover effects of capital flows on growth in natural resource‐poor countries than in their peer natural resource‐rich countries. Finally, with regard to the countries' income levels, capital flows have significant long‐term spillovers effects on economic growth in advanced African economies than in their low‐income peers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tests the hypothesis of a negative relation between openness and inflation in the context of African countries. A dynamic model of inflation in which openness enters alternately as an endogenous and exogenous variable is estimated with different panel data estimation procedures. The paper finds no robust evidence that openness served as a mechanism to restrain inflation in the region. On the contrary, the results suggest that increased openness, treated as an endogenous variable, is associated with higher inflation on holding constant such factors as food supply constraint and level of economic development which are found significant co-determinants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the impact of the institutional environment on the performance of 291 microfinance institutions in 34 sub-Saharan Africa countries during the period 2006 to 2014, by analysing the unbalanced panel data using fixed effects and generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation techniques. The panel regression results demonstrate strong evidence that a strong institutional environment has a positive effect on the performance of microfinance institutions in sub-Saharan Africa. More specifically, the findings reveal a positive and significant relationship between business freedom and microfinance performance in sub-Saharan Africa. These vital findings not only provide useful information to policy makers and key microfinance industry players, but also highlight the impact that institutional qualities have on microfinance performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the link between foreign direct investment (FDI), democracy and economic growth on a panel of eight Southern African countries for 1980-2014 using the system generalized method-of-moment (GMM) estimator. We find that FDI has a direct positive effect on economic growth and that strong democratic institutions are a significant driver of economic growth in the sample countries. The impact of FDI on economic growth is dependent on the level of democracy in the host countries. This implies that countries with strong democratic institutions are better able to absorb the positive spillovers from FDI. In policy terms, Southern African countries should sustain the institutional reform policy agenda already in place in order to benefit more from the significant inflows of FDI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper empirically studies the key drivers of gender equality in youth employment over the period, 1991 and 2011. Using the pooled OLS method with year, sub-regional, and oil fixed-effects, our results suggest that for Africa as a whole and Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), quadratic levels of real per capita GDP, gender equality in primary education, trade openness, FDI inflows, political globalization, economic growth, urbanization, female population, and being a net oil-exporting country are significantly positively associated with gender equality in youth employment. The level of real GDP per capita, equality in secondary education, gross domestic investment, access to telephone, youth unemployment, and Muslim faith tend to lower it. Government consumption expenditure also lowers it in SSA. However, North Africa is different: the level of real GDP per capita, gender equality in secondary education, and government consumption expenditure tend to increase gender equality in youth employment, while being an oil-exporting country and youth unemployment tend to lower it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The economic crisis has had significant short-term effects in most countries around the world, including those in sub-Saharan Africa. Many of the economies are now expected to begin recovering, although the recovery is anticipated to be protracted, uneven across indicators and countries, and may be fragile. Despite the recovery, will the crisis have long-term consequences for human development and Millennium Development Goal (MDG) achievements in Africa? If so, what are the mechanisms through which such impacts could take place, and what is the role for policy? This paper seeks to address these questions by examining the evidence from similar episodes in the past, and by using a simple framework to assess the long-term impact on human development including trends towards the MDGs. Using growth projections to 2014 for the countries in the region, and a range of observed trends, it models possible impacts on the MDGs, and demonstrates how the crisis could lead to real slow-downs or reversals in the rate of progress. Based on these results the paper suggests that a series of active policy interventions are needed both to accelerate progress towards the MDGs and to build resilience for the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses panel data from two new data sets on educational attainment to investigate the effects of education on several development outcomes in African countries. I find that education has a positive and significant impact on these development outcomes. I also find that different levels of education affect development outcomes differently; for some development outcomes, primary and secondary education may be more important than tertiary education, while for some development outcomes, such as income growth rate, tertiary education may be more important. The results of this paper have implications for development policy in African countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that food security and human development are intricately linked, and that meaningful progress on the one cannot be sustained without concomitant progress on the other. The paper surveys recent research on various aspects of the linkages between food security and human development and highlights areas where further research would enrich our understanding of the complex interactions and synergies between the two. It concludes by calling for a more systematic investigation of the human development-food security nexus with a view to generating new and practical insights for improving food security and advancing human development in sub-Saharan Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last thirty years, remarkable achievements have been made in China's poverty reduction course. The dramatic fall in China's poor can be attributed mainly to a high rate of economic growth, government poverty reduction policies and targeted programmes and pro-poor macroeconomic and industrial policies. This paper focuses on China's poverty reduction policies and programmes and their impact on the poor regions and poor households. Lessons are drawn for poverty reduction and economic development in African countries. The paper also explores the potential for collaboration in poverty reduction between China and African countries and recommendations are made for the governments and donor agencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's relationship with Africa has grown exponentially over the last decade with US$95 billion in bilateral trade in 2008 and US$5.4 billion of Chinese investment in Africa for the same year. The growth of Sino-African relations also has an impact on the role of traditional development partners in Africa in particular in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, which has already led some traditional development partners to reduce their aid budgets and subsequently their Official Development Assistance (ODA) flows to Africa. The objective of this paper is to analyse different development cooperation modalities in Africa of traditional development partners and China. This requires identifying trends in aid, debt relief, general budget support, trade, preferential trade access, and investment flows of both traditional development partners and China. The paper advocates that complementarities can be built between these development modalities on a national, regional and global level. This would enhance development effectiveness, increase efficiency and create win-win situations which would be beneficial to African countries, China and traditional development partners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Africa's least developed countries (LDCs), escape from poverty and convergence to living standards of more advanced economies depends critically on structural transformation and the emergence of productive entrepreneurship that would accelerate growth and job creation. So far, however, subsistence agriculture has been the main source of employment in these countries, while a dynamic private sector in industry or high value-added services has remained elusive. Utilizing the flow approach to labor markets, this paper complements the empirical literature and numerous surveys on small and medium enterprise (SME) constraints and develops a theoretical framework that examines the main obstacles to entrepreneurship in Africa's LDCs. The paper posits that given the persistent frictions in product and labor markets as well as skill shortages that characterize these economies, development of productive entrepreneurship cannot be left to markets alone. The policy analysis suggests that the state has an important role to play. Well-targeted government interventions including training of potential entrepreneurs and workers can help to establish more modern and highly productive SME clusters that Africa's LDCs need. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the trend, constraints, promotion, and prospects of investment – domestic investment, foreign direct investment, and private portfolio investment – in Africa. After identifying the importance of investment in Africa's economic development, it was shown that all forms of investment are low in Africa and hence inadequate for the attainment of the MDGs and poverty reduction in the continent. The constraining factors include: low resources mobilization; high degree of uncertainty; poor governance, corruption, and low human capital development; unfavorable regulatory environment and poor infrastructure, small individual country sizes; high dependence on primary commodities exports and increased competition; poor image abroad; shortage of foreign exchange and the burden of huge domestic and external debt; and undeveloped capital markets, their high volatility, and home bias by foreign investors. The paper recommends that successful promotion of both domestic, foreign direct and portfolio investment in Africa will require actions and measures at the national, regional, and international levels. It concludes that the prospects are bright. New and attractive investment opportunities are emerging in infrastructure, particularly as most African countries now encourage public/private partnerships for investments in this sector. In addition to privatization, renewed interest within Africa in undertaking regionally based projects and joint exploitation of natural resources is creating other investment opportunities. Apart from the fact that investment in Africa yields the highest returns, investment risk in the continent is declining. In addition, much progress has been made in recent years to improve the investment climate in Africa. All this is of course is not to deny that obstacles do remain hence economic reforms to enhance domestic investment would need to be complemented by measures to attract increased foreign capital. Critical in such endeavors must be efforts to improve governance in some countries as well as to eliminate socio-political violence in others and development of domestic capital markets, while government institutions must be modernized and upgraded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper uses a simple macroeconomic model to estimate the impact of debt relief and terms of trade shocks on growth and poverty in African countries. For the 18 heavily indebted poor countries (HIPCs) that reached the enhanced HIPC decision point by end-December 2000, the basic quantitative findings are that HIPC debt relief has boosted economic growth in these countries by an average of 2.9 percent per annum and that the computed result of this increase in growth is a reduction in poverty by an average of 2.2 percent per annum. However, the paper shows that recent deteriorations in the terms of trade have counter-balanced these positive effects by lowering growth by an average of 2.0 percent per annum and by increasing poverty by an average of 1.3 percent per annum. Clearly, much of the positive impact emanating from the HIPC Initiative has been eroded due to recent deteriorations in the terms of trade. The paper also estimates the net effect on growth and poverty of the recently agreed 100 percent multilateral debt relief. This is predicted to boost economic growth by an average of 5 percent per annum and reduce poverty by about 5.3 percent per annum for the group of all African HIPCs. The paper concludes that 100 percent debt relief is crucial for Africa, but that more aid and policies need to be focused on a long-term development strategy that fosters the necessary structural transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Africa performs poorly in the global economy. The continent lacks investments, jobs, real output, and basic social services. Aggravating the poor performance is poor management. This paper argues that the establishment of the New Partnership for Africa's Development(NEPAD) to grapple with Africa's economic problems makes sense but only if necessary policies are properly implemented. It argues that Africa should pursue interest politics through NEPAD as an economic integration. On the issue of financing the budget, which has in the past been a major constraint to OAU-initiated projects, this paper strongly recommends that it should be made mandatory that all multinational companies operating in all NEPAD member countries pay a certain percentage of their earnings into the NEPAD budget. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the travails of the social sciences in Africa since the post-colonial era. It pinpoints the fact that the ability of the social sciences to be really meaningful to the delusive development quest by Africa has been undermined by a combination of structural and epistemological problems. These problems range from the dismal economic environment in the continent, the structural limitations imposed on research, poor conditions of service to laziness and epistemological inferiority among African social scientists. However, the paper posits that the current wind of change blowing across Africa, a re-examination of the epistemology of the field and a conscientious self-reappraisal will ultimately reposition the social sciences to play significant roles in the development of Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is an extension of the debate on the nexus between the strength of intellectual property rights (IPRs) and prospects for knowledge economy. It assesses the relationships between software piracy and scientific publications in African countries for which data is available. The findings, which reveal a positive nexus, are broadly consistent with the school of thought postulating that the East Asian miracle has been largely due to weaker IPRs regimes at the early stages of development. As a policy implication, less stringent IPRs regimes on scientific-related software (at least in the short run) will substantially boost contributions to and dissemination of knowledge through scientific and technical publications in Africa. IPRs laws (treaties) on scientific-oriented software should be strengthened in tandem with progress in: (a) scientific and technical publications; and (b) knowledge spillovers essential for economic growth and development. More policy implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers ten guidelines for researchers to improve their analysis of regional integration and their approach to regional integration. By way of analysis, regional integration statistics are often misunderstood or poorly constructed. In one way or another this leads to an oversimplification of their meaning. With respect to the approach taken by policymakers to regional integration, the goals of Africa's regional integration have not been seriously interrogated; nor have the necessary national and regional preconditions for achieving even a minimal form of regional integration that is sustainable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To the extent that in utero and childhood malnutrition negatively affects later stage mental and physical health, it can possibly constrain later stage human capital acquisition, which is an important driver of economic growth. This paper considers the impact of famine on aggregate adolescent human capital formation in sub-Saharan Africa. We parameterize a joint adolescent human capital and food nutrition production function to estimate the effects of famine on years of primary school completed by individuals aged 15-19. Mixed fixed and random coefficient parameter estimates for 32 sub-Saharan African countries between 1980 and 2010 reveal that years of primary school completed by adolescents is proportional to the quantity of food and nutrition produced during childhood and in utero. This suggests that declines in food production and nutrition associated with famine in sub-Saharan Africa have large negative effects on the acquisition of human capital by adolescents and on long-run material living standards. Our findings show that there is yet another consequence to famine, a long-run reduction in adolescent human capital, and this should reinforce the case for strong food security programmes in sub-Saharan Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we have presented the patterns of inequality, growth and income inequality in the MENA region. Using a cross-sectional time series data of MENA countries for the period 1985-2009, we have also investigated the effect of income inequality on key societal development, namely economic growth and poverty, in the region. Our empirical results show that income inequality reduces economic growth and increases poverty in the region. Other factors having significant negative effect on economic growth in the MENA region include previous growth rate, exchange rate, government consumption expenditure or government burden, initial per capita GDP, inflation and primary education. On the other hand, variables positively and significantly associated with MENA's economic growth are domestic investment rate, urbanization, infrastructure development, and mineral rent as a percentage of GDP. In addition, apart from income inequality, other factors increasing poverty in the region are foreign direct investment, population growth, inflation rate, and the attainment of only primary education. Poverty-reducing variables in the region include domestic investment, trade openness, exchange rate, income per capita, and oil rents as a percentage of GDP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the weak form of market efficiency of five major stock markets; four African equity markets and one developed market. The weekly market index returns of the EGX 30, NSE 20, NSE All Share Index, FTSE-JSE All Share Index and the S&P 500 Index were analysed for the period 1998-2008. To determine if the stylized fact of stock returns in African markets violate the random walk hypothesis, numerous econometric and statistical techniques are employed. These methods include the autocorrelation test, the unit test, linear and non-linear models. The results indicate that the African markets do not behave in a manner consistent with the weak form of market efficiency. These results provide a contrast between the emerging African markets and the developed markets. It suggests that African emerging markets have higher average returns and volatility than developed markets. We argue that if the market could be made less volatile, it has the potential to attract more investment because of its attractive returns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite a decade of rapid economic growth, Africa's industrial sector remains underdeveloped. In this paper we explain why improved economic performance in the industrial sector is important for Africa's long-term growth, and discuss the prospects for accelerated industrialization on the continent. We distinguish between macroeconomic aspects, factors related to the investment climate, and the role of skills at the level of the enterprise. We also discuss the theoretical underpinnings of industrial policy, as well as implementation problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers whether trade between China and sub-Saharan Africa results in productivity-enhancing technology transfers to sub-Saharan African manufacturing firms. As trade flows between countries potentially results in interactions that lead to technological improvements in the production of goods and services, we parameterize the level of total factor productivity for African manufacturing firms as a function of foreign direct investment flow, and for the country in which it operates, trade openness with China, and its interaction with foreign direct investment. With micro-level data on manufacturing firms in five sub-Saharan African countries, we estimate the parameters of firm-level production functions between 1992 and 2004. Our parameter estimates reveal that across the firms and countries in our sample, there is no relationship between productivity-enhancing foreign direct investment and trade with China. In addition, increasing trade openness with China has no effect on the growth rate of total factor productivity. To the extent that total factor productivity and its growth is a crucial determinant of economic growth and living standards in the long run, our results suggest that increasing trade openness with China is not a long-run source of higher living standards for sub-Saharan Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Africa's economies have diverged from other developing regions: over the past three decades growth has been much slower. In this paper I relate this to the region's distinctive physical and political geography. These features not only make Africa different from other regions, they make some parts of Africa radically different from others. Understanding these differences is critical because they imply equally substantial differences in opportunities and hence in the strategies likely to be effective for growth. No pan-African growth strategy offers a realistic prospect of success, nor can Africa simply copy the strategies of successful regions that have fundamentally different physical or political geography. I propose three strategies each of which is likely to be appropriate for a part of the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an overview of how African labour markets have performed in the 1990s. It is argued that the failure of African labour markets to create good paying jobs has resulted in excess labour supply in the form of either open unemployment or a growing self-employment sector. One explanation for this outcome is a lack of labour market ‘flexibility’ keeping formal sector wages above their equilibrium level and restricting job creation. We identify three attributes of labour market flexibility. First, whether real wages decline over time; secondly, the tendency for wages to adjust in the face of unemployment; and thirdly, the extent of wage differentials between sectors and/or firms of various size. Recent research shows that real wages in Africa during the 1990s may have been more downwardly flexible than previously thought and have been surprisingly responsive to unemployment rates, yet large wage differentials between formal and informal sector firms remain. This third sense of the term ‘inflexibility’ can explain a common factor across diverse African economies — the high income divide between those working in large firms and those not. Those working in the thriving self-employment sector in Ghana have something in common with the unemployed in South Africa — both have very low income opportunities relative to those in large firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the possible effects of the US reform of the international settlement rate system on telecommunications investment in Africa. We estimate a telecommunications investment equation using a panel data of 51 African countries during the 1991–2003 period and find that settlement payments have significantly positive effects on telecommunications investment in African countries. A 10 percent increase in settlement payment, on average, increases the telecommunications investment expenditure to GDP ratio by 3.4 percent over a three-year period. Using previously calculated revenue loss from the US reform, our estimates suggest that African countries stand to lose between 4.4 to 11 percentage points of their telecommunications investment in the medium run and with it, possible decreases in income growth rate. However, we argue that African countries can counter the effects of this revenue loss by increasing the efficiency of telecommunications investment through appropriate market restructuring, including the promotion of competition and privatization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic research often claims that the lack of technical capability undermines Africa's economic growth. Policy decisions based on that claim then recommend technological improvement, where technology is generally treated as a homogenous manna from the heaven. This paper outlines four, and calculates two, broad indices of the diversity of technical capability of 14 African countries based on nine common descriptors of technical capability. It finds technical capability to be heterogeneous both within and across countries, and concludes that performance policies that overlook diversity of technical capability are potentially misleading, ineffective, and perhaps even damaging (growth retarding). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the effect of stock market development on economic growth in 14 African countries in a dynamic panel data modelling setting. Results largely show a positive relationship between stock market development and economic growth. Further analyses, based on the level of economic development and stock market capitalization, are also conducted. The results reveal that the positive influence of stock market development on economic growth is significant for countries classified as upper middle income economies. On the basis of market capitalization groupings, stock market developments play a significant role in growth only for moderately capitalized markets. The general trend in results shows that low income African countries and less developed stock markets need to grow more and develop their markets to elicit economic gains from stock markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to empirically explore the causal link between the level of financial development and economic growth in 13 sub-Saharan African countries. The empirical investigation is carried out in a vector autoregression(VAR) framework based on the theory of cointegration and error-correction representation of cointegrated variables. The results of the cointegration analysis provide evidence of the existence of a long-run relationship between financial development and economic growth in almost all(12 out of 13) of the countries. With respect to the direction of long-term causality, the results show that financial development plays a causal role on economic growth, again in eight of the countries. At the same time, evidence of bidirectional causal relationships is found in six countries. The findings imply that African countries can accelerate their economic growth by improving their financial systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper empirically investigates, in the context of African countries, the determinants of income distribution and inequality, the effect of inequality on economic growth, and the channels through which inequality affects growth. Data for 35 countries over different periods in the last four decades are employed. Factors identified as having affected income distribution include the level of economic development attained, regional factors, size of government budget and the amount of it devoted to subsidies and transfers, phase of economic cycle, share of agricultural sector in total labour force, as well as human and land resources endowment. Some evidence that high inequality reduces growth is also found. The channels through which inequality affect growth are found to be through reduction in secondary and tertiary education investment, reduction in political stability, and increase in fertility rate. There is, however, no evidence that it affects private saving and investment or the size of government expenditure and taxation, contrary to what is contended in the theoretical literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we propose that historically generated institutions and persistent pattern of human capital formation condition the emergent systems of innovation in Africa. These factors determine the development path of the region. We advance the notion of dynamic and non-dynamic systems of innovation, the latter describing the African condition. We combine the strands of literature on institutions and their persistence in shaping development with evolutionary theory and systems of innovation. Evidence is presented on the colonial origins of skewed schooling enrolment, at variance with the industrialization objective of modern economies. Employing simple statistical tests, the persistence of initial human capital (school enrolment) reflects in the significant correlation among the three levels of schooling enrolments, and correlation of enrolment in 1970 with per capita income in 2000, a periodicity of some three decades. This outcome is consistent with the literature on countries at early stages of development. Path-dependency is partially proved even though we did not attempt to investigate all variables making up the system of innovation. This is a first tentative attempt to explore long-run development in Africa within the systems of innovation framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper utilizes cointegration and the vector error-correction model (VECM) to explore the causal relationship between economic growth and growth rate of domestic savings for Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, and Zambia. Specifically, three analyses were undertaken. First, the time series properties of economic growth and domestic savings were ascertained with the help of the augmented Dickey–Fuller unit root procedure. Second, the long-run relationship between economic growth and growth rate of domestic savings was examined in the context of the Johansen and Juselius (1990) framework. Finally, a Granger-causality test was undertaken to determine the direction of causality between economic growth and growth rate of domestic savings. The results indicate one order of integration [I(1)] for each of the series. The results of the cointegration tests suggest that there is a long-run relationship between economic growth and growth rate of savings. The results from the Granger-causality tests indicate that contrary to the conventional wisdom, economic growth prima facie causes growth rate of domestic savings for most of the countries under consideration. Le présent document utilise la co-intégration et le modèle à vecteur de correction des erreurs (VECM) pour étudier les relations de cause à effet entre la croissance économique et les taux de croissance de l’épargne intérieure au Congo, en Côte d’Ivoire, au Ghana, au Kenya, en Afrique du Sud et en Zambie. Plus précisément, trois analyses ont été effectuées. La première a vérifié les propriétés des séries chronologiques de la croissance économique et de l’épargne intérieure à l’aide de la méthode Dickey–Fuller de racine unitaire augmentée. La deuxième a examiné les relations à long terme entre ... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the aims, scope and author guidelines of the magazine, which is devoted to the study and analysis of development policy in Africa. Topics include the articles related to the economic and social development in Africa, the instructions on the preparation and submission of manuscripts and the Exclusive License Form to be signed by the authors for accepted papers.

Information on the topic "Rethinking African Economic Policy in Light of the Global Economic and financial Crisis" discussed at a meeting held December 6-8, 2009 in Nairobi, Kenya. As stated, the objective of the meeting was to respond to the threats of the financial crises on Africa's growth and development. Information of several sets of papers discusses at the meeting is also discussed.