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This paper uses an instrumental variables approach to estimate the relationship between trade openness and economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa. Instrumental variables estimates show that economic growth has a significant negative contemporaneous effect on trade openness, while trade openness has a significant positive effect on economic growth. A 1 percentage point increase in the ratio of trade over GDP is associated with a short-run increase in growth of approximately 0.5% in a given year; the cumulative long-run effect on the level of GDP per capita is larger, reaching about 2%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article assesses the influence of government policy on the lack of economic success not only in tropical Africa but in most other colonies as well. It considers first the connexion between domestic British economic problems and the promotion of colonial economic development. It follows by an analysis of the work of the Colonial Development Advisory Committee, a body formed in 1929 to spend up to £1 million a year on colonial economic development. In the third section of the article, the author discusses the long-term economic policies of the local governments and the Colonia Office.